South Africa improves global web standing
South Africa has jumped one position in its global web standing, ranking 35th overall out of 81 countries in an index which measures the use, utility and impact of the web on the world’s people and nations.
The Web Index measures the World Wide Web’s contribution to the development and fulfillment of basic human rights through society’s access and use of the web.
The index tracks countries across 4 sub-indices, which looks at universal access to the web; freedom and openness of information; relevence of web content; and the level of empowerment (impact) the web provides.
For 2013, Sweden retained it’s position at the top of the rankings, followed by Norway, which climbed from 9th position in 2012.
The UK remained in 3rd position, while the United States (2nd in 2012) fell to 4th.
In emerging market economies, Mexico earned top spot (30th, overall), followed, in sequence, by Columbia, Brazil, Costa Rica and South Africa.
South Africa also led the BRICS nations, with Russia (41st), India (56th) and China (57th) trailing behind in the Index.
Top 10
| # | Country |
| 1 | Sweden |
| 2 | Norway |
| 3 | United Kingdom |
| 4 | United States |
| 5 | New Zealand |
| 6 | Denmark |
| 7 | Finland |
| 8 | Iceland |
| 9 | France |
| 10 | Republic of Korea |
In 2012, South Africa was ranked 36th overall (out of 60 countries) – second in the African content, behind Tunisia.
In the 2013 rankings, South Africa improves its position – climbing one spot to 35th – ranking as the top African country, ahead of Mauritius (40th), Tunisia (44th) and Kenya (53rd).
South Africa’s strongest performance in the sub-indices was in terms of freedom and openness of web content (20th) – highest amongst emerging market economies – but its weakest showing was in terms of the relevance of web content (48th), highlighted by the Web Index through the country’s concerning lack of access educational content.
“South Africa’s database of school infrastructure needs, covering almost 25,000 public schools and designed to be regularly updated, reveals issues of serious concern,” the Index reported.
“For example, 68 percent of schools do not have any computers, and almost 80 percent do not have libraries.”
According to the Web Index report, while the web is used quite significantly for political mobilisation in South Africa, the country faces strong knowledge barriers in terms of women’s and worker’s rights and warnings about climate change.
The report noted that there is also little to no information available for citizens to track government budget allocations and spending in the country.
Top 5 African countries
| # | Country |
| 35 | South Africa |
| 40 | Mauritius |
| 44 | Tunisia |
| 53 | Kenya |
| 53 | Morocco |
More on South Africa
South Africa’s Internet to GDP ratio
SA online economy at 2.5% of GDP by 2016
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