SA’s internet access not quite the world’s worst, but far from the best

South Africa’s digital wellbeing is in ICU due to lax security, low number of users, and broadband growth, according to the latest Digital Quality of Life Index.

The country’s worst criteria rankings were for cybersecurity (95^th place), number of internet users (91^st) and broadband speed growth (80^th).

Surfshark, an internet security firm, indexed 110 countries that covered 90% of the global population in the third edition, which ranks countries’ digital wellbeing according to the five pillars of internet quality, internet affordability, e-infrastructure, e-government, and e-security. An additional 25 countries were added to the index this time.

Internet quality measures the stability, speed and year-on-year growth of online connections, while internet affordability measures working hours required to pay for broadband and mobile internet. E-infrastructure measures the percentage of internet users per country and its network readiness, while e-security measures the ability to tackle cybercrime and the status of data protection laws, and e-government measures the roll-out of online government services and AI readiness.

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South Africa’s digital wellbeing

South Africa ranked 68^th globally out of 110 countries, a drop of nine places compared to 2020, but placed first among the 18 African countries surveyed. The country’s best criteria rankings were a seventh place for mobile internet stability, 21^st for mobile affordability, and 24^th for broadband internet affordability.

Other rankings for South Africa were:

• Internet Affordability: 26^th place, with people needing to work for 59 seconds to afford the cheapest mobile internet (21^st), and one hour and 38 minutes to afford the cheapest broadband internet (24^th).
• Internet Quality: 57^th place, with mobile speed ranking 50^th, broadband speed 71^st, mobile internet stability 7^th, broadband internet stability 78^th, mobile speed improvement 36^th and broadband speed improvement 80^th.
• Electronic Infrastructure: 87^th place, with individuals using the internet per 100 inhabitants at 91^st and network 73^rd.
• Electronic Security: 85^th place, with cyber security at 95^th and data protection laws at a high score.
• Electronic Government: 57^th place, with the online service index in 52^nd place and all readiness in 56^th place.

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Top 10 countries for digital wellbeing

Denmark took the top position in the index for the second year in a row, and the new overall top 10 has changed considerably, with a new entrant, South Korea, taking the second spot, ahead of Finland (3) and Israel (4). The United States jumped to the 5th position from the 22nd spot the year before, with significant improvements in internet quality and e-infrastructure.

Singapore was in sixth place, France in seventh, Switzerland eighth, Germany ninth, and Britain in 10th place.

“Digital opportunities have proved to be more important than ever during the COVID-19 crisis, stressing the importance for every country to ensure fully remote operational capacities for their economies,” says Vytautas Kaziukonis, CEO of Surfshark.

“That is why, for the third year in a row, we continue the Digital Quality of Life research, which provides a robust global outlook into how countries excel digitally. The index sets the basis for meaningful discussions about how digital advancement impacts a country’s prosperity and where improvements can be made.”

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Other significant findings

• Broadband is globally less affordable this year, with  people having to work 11% (25 minutes) more to afford broadband internet, but 29% (28 minutes) less to afford mobile internet this year.
• The world’s worst internet is also the world’s least affordable. People in countries such as Nigeria, Côte D’Ivoire and Mali have to work for about a week to afford the internet.
• Investing in electronic infrastructure and the electronic government contributes to people’s digital wellbeing the most.