A third of the world's population will be without internet in 2022

2.7 billion people will not be able to access the internet this year.

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A third of the world's population in 2022 will still be without an Internet connection, amid a slowdown in the pace of new connections, according to the latest statistics published by the United Nations on Friday.

“About 5.3 billion people around the world now use the Internet, and while growth remains encouraging, the trend indicates that in the absence of new investments in infrastructure and new momentum to attract new digital skills, the opportunities to connect the world’s population by 2030 are significantly declining,” the International Telecommunication Union said in a statement. growing".

While 2.7 billion people are still unable to access the Internet this year, their number was three billion in 2021 and 3.6 billion in 2019, before the “Covid-19” pandemic.

The Secretary-General of this United Nations organization, Houlin Zhao, stressed that this "gave us a good boost in terms of connectivity, but we must maintain the same pace to ensure that everyone benefits" from digital services.

"This can only be achieved through more investment in networks, digital technologies and legislation inspired by the best models and training processes," he added.

The ITU identified two main obstacles to its goal of making the world's population fully connected: the population that remains offline is also the most difficult to reach, as well as the difficulties of transitioning from simple network access to regular and easy access.

The union considers that obstacles are often underestimated such as very slow connection speeds, very high prices for equipment and subscriptions, a lack of digital literacy or even cultural and language barriers, but also gender discrimination and sometimes a lack of access to electricity.

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