Technology

Ranking Countries By Digital Quality of Life in 2022

Published

9 months ago

December 26, 2022

Surfshark

Featured Creator

Article/Editing:

Omri Wallach

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Ranking Countries By Digital Quality of Life in 2022

Life and work in the 21st century is increasingly reliant on modern technology, with a country’s digital quality of life playing a massive role on people’s day-to-day.

Some countries excel in internet access and affordability, while others have more modern digital systems and relevant laws. And many regions of the world suffer with lacking digital infrastructure and access across the board.

The 2022 Digital Quality of Life Index (DQL) from Surfshark analyzes countries on digital wellbeing, based on data from the UN, World Bank, Freedom House, and the International Communications Union.

5 Metrics for Measuring Digital Wellbeing

The DQL Index covers 117 countries with readily available data, making up 92% of the global population. Each country is scored on five pillars:

Internet Affordability—How much time people have to work to afford a stable internet connection.
Internet Quality—How fast and stable the internet connectivity in a country is and how well it’s improving.
Electronic Infrastructure—How well developed and inclusive a country’s existing electronic infrastructure is.
Electronic Security—How safe and protected people feel in a country.
Electronic Government—How advanced and digitized a country’s government services are.

Visualizing The World’s Digital Quality of Life

Overall, Europe and Asia led the digital quality of life rankings in 2022. Israel took the top spot with an incredibly strong score in internet affordability. Here are the countries sorted by rankings and their weighted scores in each category:

Rank	Country	Affordability	Quality	E-infrastructure	E-security	E-government
1	Israel	0.1917	0.0981	0.1668	0.1503	0.1541
2	Denmark	0.047	0.1186	0.1968	0.1878	0.1844
3	Germany	0.0718	0.0926	0.1922	0.1946	0.1612
4	France	0.0534	0.111	0.1834	0.1878	0.1749
5	Sweden	0.0213	0.1059	0.1958	0.1878	0.1787
6	Netherlands	0.0241	0.0985	0.1956	0.1865	0.1796
7	Finland	0.0171	0.0973	0.192	0.1892	0.1869
8	Japan	0.0684	0.1024	0.1846	0.1462	0.177
9	U.K.	0.0413	0.0898	0.1882	0.1611	0.188
10	South Korea	0.0252	0.1139	0.1884	0.1516	0.1868
11	Lithuania	0.0508	0.087	0.1705	0.1973	0.1592
12	U.S.	0.0326	0.113	0.1944	0.1224	0.1947
13	Switzerland	0.0337	0.1114	0.1914	0.1597	0.1607
14	Estonia	0.0219	0.0759	0.1852	0.1946	0.1779
15	Singapore	0.0717	0.1134	0.1852	0.0943	0.19
16	Spain	0.0257	0.0924	0.1777	0.1919	0.1656
17	Norway	0.0136	0.0923	0.194	0.1649	0.174
18	Luxembourg	0.0272	0.0911	0.1878	0.1689	0.1597
19	Italy	0.0362	0.082	0.1733	0.1824	0.159
20	Portugal	0.0085	0.1101	0.1576	0.1932	0.1565
21	Belgium	0.0162	0.0868	0.1823	0.1973	0.1409
22	Austria	0.0279	0.0717	0.1782	0.1716	0.1719
23	Poland	0.0242	0.0869	0.1566	0.1905	0.1568
24	Ireland	0.0217	0.0874	0.1799	0.1662	0.1596
25	Czechia	0.023	0.0755	0.1707	0.196	0.1472
26	Canada	0.0228	0.0967	0.1831	0.1289	0.1723
27	Hungary	0.0206	0.1046	0.1647	0.1676	0.1425
28	New Zealand	0.0166	0.1027	0.1731	0.1341	0.1702
29	Slovakia	0.0233	0.0807	0.161	0.1865	0.1417
30	Bulgaria	0.0308	0.1025	0.1352	0.177	0.1452
31	Croatia	0.0133	0.0911	0.1625	0.1865	0.1346
32	Slovenia	0.0102	0.0934	0.1619	0.1622	0.1591
33	Latvia	0.0235	0.0918	0.1628	0.1784	0.1289
34	Romania	0.0299	0.105	0.1427	0.1743	0.1327
35	Australia	0.0453	0.0706	0.1755	0.1089	0.1802
36	Malta	0.0104	0.093	0.1639	0.1527	0.1547
37	Cyprus	0.0139	0.0718	0.1589	0.1689	0.1548
38	Malaysia	0.0319	0.0838	0.1636	0.1224	0.1561
39	Greece	0.0085	0.0713	0.142	0.2	0.1344
40	Chile	0.0251	0.1202	0.1469	0.1022	0.1538
41	Uruguay	0.0051	0.1054	0.1569	0.13	0.1498
42	Russia	0.0556	0.0794	0.1512	0.0943	0.152
43	China	0.0241	0.1045	0.1485	0.0741	0.175
44	U.A.E.	0.0071	0.1148	0.1779	0.0419	0.1712
45	Argentina	0.0073	0.0694	0.1575	0.13	0.1464
46	Qatar	0.0077	0.1077	0.1705	0.0808	0.1421
47	Armenia	0.1009	0.07	0.1356	0.0765	0.1221
48	Serbia	0.0184	0.0739	0.1387	0.1238	0.1429
49	Thailand	0.0081	0.1045	0.151	0.0876	0.1391
50	Ukraine	0.0259	0.0581	0.1613	0.1184	0.1256
51	Saudi Arabia	0.0057	0.0873	0.1635	0.0865	0.1408
52	Turkey	0.0153	0.0679	0.1526	0.0968	0.1488
53	Brazil	0.0078	0.0884	0.1388	0.0686	0.1558
54	Moldova	0.0357	0.0687	0.1359	0.0927	0.1226
55	Philippines	0.0044	0.0779	0.1371	0.1062	0.1265
56	Bahrain	0.0084	0.0878	0.166	0.047	0.1396
57	Colombia	0.0051	0.0775	0.1248	0.0954	0.1433
58	Costa Rica	0.0042	0.0721	0.1523	0.0954	0.1206
59	India	0.0266	0.071	0.1149	0.0822	0.1489
60	N. Macedonia	0.0095	0.0684	0.1409	0.0981	0.1237
61	Kazakhstan	0.0185	0.0639	0.1408	0.07	0.1473
62	Mexico	0.0111	0.0688	0.1291	0.0792	0.142
63	Paraguay	0.0091	0.0724	0.1424	0.0862	0.113
64	Albania	0.0087	0.0567	0.1313	0.09	0.1328
65	Oman	0.0053	0.065	0.1455	0.0473	0.1502
66	South Africa	0.0198	0.0689	0.1171	0.0778	0.1294
67	Georgia	0.0097	0.0577	0.1408	0.0941	0.1103
68	Mauritius	0.0149	0.0459	0.1311	0.09	0.1298
69	Belarus	0.0224	0.068	0.1396	0.0554	0.123
70	Vietnam	0.0145	0.0712	0.1396	0.0578	0.1241
71	Morocco	0.0068	0.0603	0.1247	0.113	0.1004
72	Indonesia	0.0064	0.0639	0.1382	0.0605	0.1342
73	Peru	0.0037	0.069	0.126	0.0819	0.1213
74	Azerbaijan	0.0093	0.0618	0.1361	0.0592	0.1253
75	Montenegro	0.0149	0.0566	0.1339	0.0765	0.1064
76	Bangladesh	0.024	0.0681	0.1204	0.0703	0.1021
77	Tunisia	0.011	0.0484	0.1225	0.0886	0.1142
78	Kenya	0.0047	0.0492	0.1391	0.0714	0.1193
79	Dominican Republic	0.0047	0.0597	0.1163	0.0754	0.1229
80	Bosnia and Herzegovina	0.0127	0.0634	0.1353	0.0697	0.0974
81	Panama	0.0032	0.0851	0.1279	0.05	0.1111
82	Ecuador	0.0045	0.0656	0.132	0.0365	0.1256
83	Trinidad and Tobago	0.0094	0.0622	0.1277	0.0551	0.1074
84	Iran	0.0149	0.0585	0.1482	0.0149	0.1113
85	Egypt	0.0064	0.0583	0.1098	0.0595	0.1135
86	Nigeria	0.0014	0.0552	0.1187	0.0768	0.0916
87	Jordan	0.0048	0.0754	0.1434	0.0297	0.0862
88	Ghana	0.0025	0.0531	0.0957	0.0724	0.1091
89	Sri Lanka	0.0071	0.0658	0.0943	0.0446	0.1184
90	Mongolia	0.015	0.059	0.135	0.0189	0.0951
91	Kyrgyzstan	0.0105	0.0603	0.0986	0.0457	0.1074
92	Algeria	0.005	0.0601	0.1312	0.0551	0.0707
93	Bolivia	0.0051	0.0583	0.1287	0.0324	0.0941
94	Nepal	0.0069	0.0684	0.1132	0.0497	0.0762
95	Senegal	0.0036	0.055	0.1048	0.0603	0.0906
96	Pakistan	0.006	0.0616	0.0938	0.0446	0.1015
97	Jamaica	0.0047	0.0584	0.113	0.0432	0.0859
98	Uganda	0.0007	0.0489	0.0777	0.0768	0.0943
99	El Salvador	0.0028	0.0662	0.1066	0.0257	0.0944
100	Ivory Coast	0.0006	0.0465	0.0881	0.0724	0.0869
101	Cambodia	0.0043	0.0631	0.1178	0.0162	0.0831
102	Mali	0.0011	0.0548	0.0969	0.0603	0.0689
103	Namibia	0.0046	0.0517	0.0955	0.0322	0.0899
104	Guatemala	0.0029	0.059	0.0877	0.0257	0.0878
105	Zambia	0.0034	0.0241	0.0935	0.0781	0.0613
106	Botswana	0.0051	0.0523	0.0977	0.023	0.0777
107	Tanzania	0.0021	0.0517	0.0813	0.0257	0.0924
108	Honduras	0.004	0.0675	0.0838	0.0108	0.0861
109	Zimbabwe	0.0019	0.034	0.0907	0.0362	0.0854
110	Angola	0.0047	0.0567	0.0576	0.0495	0.0748
111	Laos	0.0066	0.0489	0.0955	0.0189	0.059
112	Tajikistan	0.0108	0.0485	0.073	0.0108	0.0754
113	Cameroon	0.0014	0.0178	0.073	0.0338	0.0832
114	Mozambique	0.0021	0.0378	0.0526	0.0295	0.0815
115	Ethiopia	0.0032	0.0472	0.048	0.0338	0.0682
116	Yemen	0.007	0.0644	0.0479	0.0081	0.0527
117	Congo DR	0.0063	0.0596	0.0446	0.0027	0.0394

Overall, 15 of the top 20 highest-scoring countries were located in Europe, including #2 Denmark and #3 Germany, reflecting the region’s strong scores in electronic infrastructure and security.

In addition to Israel, the Asia region was represented at the top by #8 Japan, #10 South Korea, and #15 Singapore. The only non-Asian and non-European country to make the top 20 was the United States at #12.

mapping the 2022 digital quality of life index

GDP’s Impact on Digital Infrastructure

Of the 117 countries that had data available for the index, the majority of the lowest-ranking countries were in Africa or Asia. This includes the bottom five: Cameroon, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Yemen, and DR Congo.

In fact, when the DQL Index was charted against GDP per capita, a clear and unsurprising trend emerges:

Comparing digital quality of life to GDP in 2022

As countries have to grapple with limited resources and capital for increasing their digital wellbeing, we can see different priorities emerge. For example. many countries scored poorly on internet affordability and electronic government while prioritizing investments in internet quality and electronic infrastructure.

And despite the proliferation of mobile phones across the world, more countries were able to set up stable broadband internet over mobile internet.

mobile vs broadband internet availability in the DQL 2022

To find out more interesting insights, dive in to the full Digital Quality of Life Index.

This article was published as a part of Visual Capitalist's Creator Program, which features data-driven visuals from some of our favorite Creators around the world.

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Technology

Who Owns the Most Satellites?

Despite Starlink’s dominance in the industry, the company is set to face intense competition in the coming years.

Published

2 days ago

September 23, 2023

Bruno Venditti

Who Owns the Most Satellites?

Nearly 7,000 satellites orbit the Earth, serving vital functions such as communication, navigation, and scientific research.

In 2022 alone, more than 150 launches took place, sending new instruments into space, with many more expected over the next decade.

But who owns these objects? In this graphic, we utilize data from the Union of Concerned Scientists to highlight the leaders in satellite technology.

SpaceX’s Dominance in Space

SpaceX, led by Elon Musk, is unquestionably the industry leader, currently operating the largest fleet of satellites in orbit—about 50% of the global total.

The company has already completed 62 missions this year, surpassing any other company or nation, and operates thousands of internet-beaming Starlink spacecraft that provide global internet connectivity.

Starlink customers receive a small satellite dish that self-orients itself to align with Starlink’s low-Earth-orbit satellites.

Owner	Total	Share	Country
SpaceX	3,395	50%	USA
OneWeb Satellites	502	7%	UK
Chinese Government	369	5%	China
U.S. Government	306	4%	USA
Planet Labs, Inc.	195	3%	USA
Russian Federation	137	2%	Russia
Spire Global Inc.	127	2%	USA
Swarm Technologies	84	1%	USA
Iridium Communications, Inc.	75	1%	USA
Other	1,528	23%

Percentages may not add to 100 due to rounding.

In second place is a lesser-known company, British OneWeb Satellites. The company, headquartered in London, counts the UK government among its investors and provides high-speed internet services to governments, businesses, and communities.

Like many other satellite operators, OneWeb relies on SpaceX to launch its satellites.

Despite Starlink’s dominance in the industry, the company is set to face intense competition in the coming years. Amazon’s Project Kuiper plans to deploy 3,236 satellites by 2029 to compete with SpaceX’s network. The first of the fleet could launch as early as 2024.

The Rise of China’s Space Program

After the top private companies, governments also own a significant portion of satellites orbiting the Earth. The U.S. remains the leader in total satellites, when adding those owned by both companies and government agencies together.

American expenditures on space programs reached $62 billion in 2022, five times more than the second one, China.

China, however, has sped up its space program over the last 20 years and currently has the highest number of satellites in orbit belonging directly to government agencies. Most of these are used for Earth observation, communications, defense, and technology development.

Satellite Demand to Rise Over the Decade

Despite the internet being taken for granted in major metropolitan areas and developed countries, one out of every three people worldwide has never used the web.

Furthermore, the increasing demand for data and the emergence of new, more cost-effective satellite technologies are expected to present significant opportunities for private space companies.

In this context, satellite demand is projected to quadruple over the next decade.