Digital Quality of Life Index 2020

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In New: India ranks among the lowest in the world in terms of Internet quality, according to the Digital Quality of Life Report.

Key Points

• Coverage: It is global research on the quality of digital wellbeing in 85 countries (81% of the global population)
• Parameters: The study indexes the countries by looking at five fundamental pillars that define the digital quality of life namely, internet affordability, internet quality, electronic infrastructure, electronic security and electronic government.
• GDP and DQL: Although GDP per capita has a strong correlation with the DQL, there are countries that have a better digital quality of life with a lower GDP per capita than expected.
  • 13 countries (Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, China, Croatia, Greece, etc.) exceed the expected digital quality of life by outperforming others in providing higher levels of e-security and more affordable internet connectivity.
  • Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia with relatively high GDP per capita are underperforming in providing better digital wellbeing for their citizens due to low levels of internet quality and e-security.
• Affordability: The affordability of the internet plays a major role in ensuring accessibility but has a notably lower correlation with the DQL than the other pillars.
• Internet Infrastructure: The stability of the internet infrastructure has become of crucial importance during the Covid-19 pandemic when video conferences replaced live meetings. Consequently, it impacted the quality of people’s digital lives.
  • During the first month of the lockdowns, 49 of 85 countries experienced deteriorated speeds of mobile internet and 44 countries experienced deteriorated speeds of broadband connection.

Global Rankings

• 7 out of 10 countries with the highest DQL are in Europe, with Denmark leading among 85 countries.
• Scandinavian countries excel in offering high-quality digital wellbeing to their citizens.
• Canada leads in American continents, Japan in Asia, South Africa in Africa and News Zealand in Oceania.

Indian Rankings: India stands at the overall rank of 57 out of the 85 countries.

• Internet Affordability: 9th place and outperforms countries like the UK, the USA and China.
• Internet Quality: 78th place and is almost at the bottom of the pillar.
• E-infrastructure: 79th place and below countries like Guatemala and Sri Lanka.
• Electronic Security: 57th position.
• E-government: 15th place and just below countries like New Zealand and Italy.

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