New figures released recently by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), an agency under the United Nations, rank the Republic of Korea as the world’s most advanced ICT economy, followed by Sweden, Iceland, Denmark, and Finland.

The new data, released in ITU’s flagship annual report ‘Measuring the Information Society 2011’, show that information and communication technology uptake continues to accelerate worldwide, spurred by a steady fall in the price of telephone and broadband Internet services.

A key feature of the report is the ICT Development Index (IDI), which ranks 152 countries according to their level of ICT access, use and skills, and compares 2008 and 2010 scores.

The top ten IDI 2010 economies are (in order of their ranks) the Republic of Korea, Sweden, Iceland, Denmark, Finland, Hong Kong (China), Luxembourg, Switzerland, Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.

Most countries at the top of the ranking are from Europe and Asia Pacific, and they largely correspond to the world’s high-income economies, given the strong correlation between the level of ICT development and GDP.

Article Source: AsianScientist

Full report: ITU website

Full report: PDF