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World Bank Internet Usage Data is Wack: Higher % in Sudan than Kenya? DRC than Ghana? Please!
I'm looking at this World Bank visualization of Internet users in Africa and I'm thinking there's a major data mistake. Just check out what they say is the Internet users as percentage of population for several African countries:
I refuse to believe that there's a higher Internet penetration in Sudan than Kenya, Senegal, Uganda or Nigeria. And that DRC (!) beats Ghana, Rwanda and Cameroon is just not right!
What do you think? Could there be more Internet access in Zimbabwe than the computing powerhouses of East Africa? Or is World Bank off their rocker with these numbers?
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Thanks for posting, Wayan.
I'm curious about their data sources - agreed that it'd be pretty surprising to find higher proportional internet penetration in DRC than in Ghana. For some of the other countries, though, it's not too surprising (for those who haven't yet visited, the link lets you enter/remove other countries' usage data on the graph). I wonder how much language plays into this - like, are anglophone countries disproportionately represented because the internet is so dominated by English?
Also a good fit with yesterday's mesmerizing-post-of-the-day on text messages/cell call time vs. minimum wages across Africa: http://is.gd/4SKB9
Questionable
I agree that these figures are questionable. They simply don't make sense. The UN officials might have just sat in the comfort of their offices and generate the stats from inaccurate sources.
Zimbabwe and Sudan (two of the world's failed states) are very disputable.
World Bank Internet Usage
sudan is very possible, the economy and currency been doing well (relatively speaking).
the north and east have always been stable regardless of political turmoil or wars (country is large enough for wars in south and west to have little effect on people living in north).
being close to Egypt and the many undersea cables probably helps.
finaly having high population density around the nile valley makes it easier to deliver infrastructure.
I'd compare with literacy and urban vs rural statistics if they correspond then there is nothing fishy about the stats.
on the other hand any stats collected by an african government is suspect
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