Globally, 84 per cent of individuals aged 10 years and above own a mobile phone. Universal ownership, defined as an ownership rate of at least 95 per cent, has been reached in high-income economies, while upper-middle-income economies have already surpassed the 90 per cent mark. By contrast, in low-income economies, only 57 per cent of individuals aged 10 years and above own a mobile phone.
Mobile phones are the most common gateway to the Internet, so mobile phone ownership can provide an indication of Internet use. This is not a one-to-one relationship, however, as individuals may access the Internet using someone else’s phone, such as children using a parent’s device, while some phones are used only for calls. In most countries, the percentage of individuals who own a mobile phone is higher than the percentage of individuals who use the Internet.
The same pattern holds across all six ITU regions. In Europe, the CIS and the Americas, the gap between mobile phone ownership and Internet use is small, with both already close to universality. In the Asia-Pacific region, the difference is also small, with mobile phone ownership four percentage points higher than Internet use. In the Arab States, the gap is 10 percentage points. In Africa, the gap stands at 26 percentage points between mobile phone ownership (68 per cent) and Internet use (42 per cent). The gap is shrinking in all regions, as growth in Internet use continues to outpace growth in mobile phone ownership.
The gender gap in mobile phone ownership is comparable to the gender gap in Internet use. Globally, 81 per cent of women and 89 per cent of men aged 10 years and above own a mobile phone, translating into a gender parity score of 0.90 (skewed against women), which is lower than the 0.94 score for Internet use (see above). Progress towards gender parity in mobile phone ownership has been negligible over the past three years.
Globally, women are 9.6 per cent less likely to own a mobile phone than men. Among those who do not own a mobile phone, women outnumber men by 78 per cent. As with Internet use, gender parity in mobile phone ownership is strongly correlated with income levels. The lowest scores are observed in low-income countries, LDCs, and LLDCs.