Technology

Ranking Countries By Digital Quality of Life in 2022

Published

5 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.

Related Topics:france denmark singapore israel Sweden digital quality of life internet affordability infrastructure electronic infrastructure japan internet infrastructure internet access internet quality germany electricity access US digital systems

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Technology

Nvidia Joins the Trillion Dollar Club

America’s biggest chipmaker Nvidia has joined the trillion dollar club as advancements in AI move at lightning speed.

Published

4 days ago

May 30, 2023

Dorothy Neufeld

Nvidia Joins the Trillion Dollar Club

Chipmaker Nvidia is now worth nearly as much as Amazon.

America’s largest semiconductor company has vaulted past the $1 trillion market capitalization mark, a milestone reached by just a handful of companies including Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft. While many of these are household names, Nvidia has only recently gained widespread attention amid the AI boom.

The above graphic compares Nvidia to the seven companies that have reached the trillion dollar club.

Riding the AI Wave

Nvidia’s market cap has more than doubled in 2023 to over $1 trillion.

The company designs semiconductor chips that are made of silicon slices that contain specific patterns. Just like you flip an electrical switch by turning on a light at home, these chips have billions of switches that process complex information simultaneously.

Today, they are integral to many AI functions—from OpenAI’s ChatGPT to image generation. Here’s how Nvidia stands up against companies that have achieved the trillion dollar milestone:

	Joined Club	Market Cap in trillions	Peak Market Cap in trillions
Apple	Aug 2018	$2.78	$2.94
Microsoft	Apr 2019	$2.47	$2.58
Aramco	Dec 2019	$2.06	$2.45
Alphabet	Jul 2020	$1.58	$1.98
Amazon	Apr 2020	$1.25	$1.88
Meta	Jun 2021	$0.68	$1.07
Tesla	Oct 2021	$0.63	$1.23
Nvidia	May 2023	$1.02	$1.02

Note: Market caps as of May 30th, 2023

After posting record sales, the company added $184 billion to its market value in one day. Only two other companies have exceeded this number: Amazon ($191 billion), and Apple ($191 billion).

As Nvidia’s market cap reaches new heights, many are wondering if its explosive growth will continue—or if the AI craze is merely temporary. There are cases to be made on both sides.

Bull Case Scenario

Big tech companies are racing to develop capabilities like OpenAI. These types of generative AI require vastly higher amounts of computing power, especially as they become more sophisticated.

Many tech giants, including Google and Microsoft use Nvidia chips to power their AI operations. Consider how Google plans to use generative AI in six products in the future. Each of these have over 2 billion users.

Nvidia has also launched new products days since its stratospheric rise, spanning from robotics to gaming. Leading the way is the A100, a powerful graphics processing unit (GPU) well-suited for machine learning. Additionally, it announced a new supercomputer platform that Google, Microsoft, and Meta are first in line for. Overall, 65,000 companies globally use the company’s chips for a wide range of functions.

Bear Case Scenario

While extreme investor optimism has launched Nvidia to record highs, how do some of its fundamental valuations stack up to other giants?

As the table below shows, its price to earnings (P/E) ratio is second-only to Amazon, at 214.4. This shows how much a shareholder pays compared to the earnings of a company. Here, the company’s share price is over 200 times its earnings on a per share basis.

	P/E Ratio	Net Profit Margin (Annual)
Apple	30.2	25.3%
Microsoft	36.1	36.7%
Aramco	13.5	26.4%
Alphabet	28.2	21.2%
Amazon	294.2	-0.5%
Meta	33.9	19.9%
Tesla	59.0	15.4%
Nvidia	214.4	16.19%

Consider how this looks for revenue of Nvidia compared to other big tech names:

$NVDA $963 billion market cap, 38x Revenue
$MSFT $2.5 trillion market cap, 12x Revenue$TSLA $612 billion market cap, 7.8x Revenue$AAPL $2.75 trillion market cap, 7.3x Revenue$GOOG $1.6 trillion market cap, 6.1x Revenue$META $672 billion market cap, 6x Revenue pic.twitter.com/VgkKAfiydx

— Martin Pelletier (@MPelletierCIO) May 29, 2023

For some, Nvidia’s valuation seems unrealistic even in spite of the prospects of AI. While Nvidia has $11 billion in projected revenue for the next quarter, it would still mean significantly higher multiples than its big tech peers. This suggests the company is overvalued at current prices.

Nvidia’s Growth: Will it Last?

This is not the first time Nvidia’s market cap has rocketed up.

During the crypto rally of 2021, its share price skyrocketed over 100% as demand for its GPUs increased. These specialist chips help mine cryptocurrency, and a jump in demand led to a shortage of chips at the time.

As cryptocurrencies lost their lustre, Nvidia’s share price sank over 46% the following year.

By comparison, AI advancements could have more transformative power. Big tech is rushing to partner with Nvidia, potentially reshaping everything from search to advertising.