Data & Numbers

Seemingly endless numbers of statistics exist on the subject of African telecommunications. Over the years, governments, ISPs, and consultants have studied a range of metrics in order to gauge the prospects for network development. These numbers can help shape ICT policy, funding, and more. Take caution, however: many statistics are outdated (many by more than 5 years). Most resources on this page are from 2008-present and are sorted by order of date added to the site.

In general, Africa’s Internet penetration rate is often cited by the ITU as 11.4% (March 2011), although this number represents anyone who has used the Internet within the past year. Additionally, this number does not reflect household Internet connections – many Africans access the Internet in public places. Africa’s mobile subscription rate is now over 50% and rapidly growing. However, national and regional differences are substantial. For example, West Africa holds a 30% or so mobile rate and Central Africa is below 20%. North and South Africa raise the continental average.

For oAfrica posts on the subject of statistics, please head over to the stats category archive page.

Regularly Updated Sources:

  1. Key Global Telecom Indicators for the World Telecommunication Service Sector. {http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/statistics/at_glance/KeyTelecom.html} Mobile & broadband subscription numbers by region, and more.
  2. Kenya Open Data. {http://www.opendata.go.ke/} This site makes public government data accessible to the people of Kenya. The goal is to improve transparency, unlock social and economic value, and build Government 2.0.
  3. Panafrican Research Agenda ICT Observatory. {http://www.observatoiretic.org/default/use} A great resource in partnership with UNESCO. Here you can find 180 qualitative and quantitative indicators addressing themes including the use, impact and sustainability of ICTs in African educational institutions on a country level. The search tool is very useful as well.
  4. Africa Internet Usage and Population Statistics. {http://www.internetworldstats.com/africa.htm} The best source for African Internet users/subscribers by country and by percentage of the population. Note the vast difference in number of subscribers vs. users (penetration rate).
  5. AfriNIC IP statistics. {http://www.afrinic.net/statistics} Trends in registered IP blocks and more. (Also available here)
  6. Research ICT Africa, {http://www.researchictafrica.net/publications.php} Useful data publications (ICT status reports, gender & e-skills assessments) from a group of 20 countries.
  7. Country-wise Total Domains. {http://www.webhosting.info/domains/country_stats/} Updated weekly, this list attempts to list and rank the number of ccTLD’s for all applicable nations.
  8. Google Public Data Explorer’s World Bank World Development Indicators. {http://www.google.com/publicdata/overview?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_} Of interest for African tech are Internet users over time, and mobile cellular subscriptions (per 100 people) over time, and time to start a business.
  9. AudienceScapes Africa Data Center. {http://audiencescapes.org/africa-research-online-data-analysis-tool-survey-information} Search for survey results from a handful of nations on topics like mobile access, Internet access, and local knowledge of new technologies.
  10. Socialbakers Facebook Statistics by country. {http://www.socialbakers.com/facebook-statistics/} Global stats for Facebook users and growth, broken out by country/continent and by weekly/monthly time periods. Most African nations are shown.
  11. Household Data Index. {http://www.netindex.com/download/allcountries/} Recent results of SpeedTest.net bandwidth reports from around the globe. Many African nations have data.
  12. Google Insights for Search. {http://www.google.com/insights/search/#} Follow keyword trends from 2008-present by location.
  13. State of the Internet Report, Akamai. {http://www.akamai.com/stateoftheinternet/} An attempt to measure the average bandwidth and penetration of the continents.
  14. Alexa – Top Sites for Countries. {http://www.alexa.com/topsites/countries} A list of most visited websites for a handful of African nations. Not sure how accurate the data is, but it’s worth a look.
  15. Ranking Web of World Universities – Top Africa. {http://www.webometrics.info/top100_continent.asp?cont=africa} Universities have been ranked based on web size, rich files, Google Scholar presence, and link visibility.
  16. Africa Internet Speed “Real Time” Statistics & Results. {http://www.speedtests.net/world/africa/} Data is only available for 23 African nations, and may or may not be accurate. Still, even if download speeds are decent, upload speeds are much slower.
  17. Telecommunications Research List of Countries. {http://www.budde.com.au/Research/Countries/} Free high-level summaries of telecoms, broadband, and mobile market research reports. Full reports are expensive.
  18. Jon Hoehler’s yfrog Profile. {http://yfrog.com/user/JonHoehler/profile} South African mobile services professional who often posts data and visuals of African broadband and mobile growth.

2011:

  1. The impact of information and communiation technologies in the Middle East and North Africa. {http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/technical_reports/2011/RAND_TR1163.pdf} Research prepared for the World Bank. Contains dozens of data points of North African Internet access.
  2. Mobile Hotspots in Africa Q3 11. {http://cdn.bizcommunity.com/f/1111/Mobile_Hotspots_in_Africa-Q3-11.pdf} Mobile ad impressions served by country.
  3. Measuring the Information Society 2011. {http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/publications/idi/2011/} Global and national Internet, mobile, and broadband habits from 2008 and 2010. 157 pages of great analysis and visuals on many African nations.
  4. ICT Facts and Figures 2011. {http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/facts/2011/material/ICTFactsFigures2011.pdf} Statistics for Africa, developing nations, and specific African nations, including international capacity, 3G service by nation, broadband penetration, and more.
  5. In Sub-Saharan Africa, Income Key to Being Super-Connected. {http://www.gallup.com/poll/150290/Sub-Saharan-Africa-Income-Key-Super-Connected.aspx} A poll of residents in 17 nations looks at mobile and Internet access trends based on income and education level.
  6. Insights MENA. {http://www.insightsmena.com/en/} Explore the media habits of Internet users in Egypt and Morocco. Relies upon 2010 in-person interview data.
  7. Africa’s Telecoms Titans. {http://www.techzim.co.zw/tag/africas-telecoms-titans/} Bi-weekly series of overviews for major telecoms operators in Africa. Includes statistics, footprint, and company structure.
  8. Broadband: A Platform for Progress. {http://www.broadbandcommission.org/report1/report2.pdf} Global report on the state of broadband. Includes sections on Africa and general guidelines for developing nations.
  9. mHealth: New horizons for health through mobile technologies. {http://www.who.int/goe/publications/goe_mhealth_web.pdf} Findings of the second survey on eHealth, published by the World Health Organization. Very pertinent to Africa. 112 pages.
  10. Digital Life. {http://discoverdigitallife.com} Visualization of a digital consumer study. Includes data for much of North and East Africa.
  11. Transforming the East African ICT Sector by Creating a Business Engine for SMEs. {http://www.infodev.org/en/Document.1040.pdf} Results of a study of SMEs in East Africa, including tables and analysis.
  12. Africa Broadband Pulse Check. {http://afrinnovator.com/blog/2011/08/02/africa-internetbroadband-pulse-check/} A summary of how broadband continues to permeate Africa. Relies on undersea cable bandwidth maps, SEACOM, and ITU data.
  13. Global Information Technology Report, 2010-2011. {http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GITR_Report_2011.pdf} Analysis and stats across dozens of pillars for most African nations.
  14. Internet usage per capita (Internal Google Data). {Google Africa Blog} This graph representing total Internet usage (not the number of users) is taken from a whitepaper on building Internet capacity in Liberia. Based on traffic through a basket of Google services in 2010. South Africa, Namibia, and Botswana all rank well.
  15. Empirical bandwidth speeds from Accra, Nairobi, and Nigeria. {http://www.flickr.com/photos/dcmetroblogger/tags/bandwidth} Speed measured in multiple locations in Africa. Updated March 2011.
  16. Dial-up Internet Access in South Africa, 2004-2010. {http://mybroadband.co.za/news/telecoms/19413-Dial–clings-despite-broadband-boom.html} An interesting chart (currently a bell-curve) created from World Wide Worx stats shows how dial-up is hanging on in a nation of increasing broadband connections.
  17. Mobile Technology in Kenya. {http://www.ihub.co.ke/blog/2011/09/mobile-broadband-in-kenya/} Infographic of mobile subscribers, Internet users, and mobile Internet subscriptions.
  18. Web Trends Nigeria Facebook stats. {http://webtrendsng.com/index.php?task=page&action=browse} Lists most popular Nigerian Facebook groups and pages.
  19. Mobile phone usage report 2011. {http://www.gsmarena.com/mobile_phone_usage_survey-review-592.php} A less-than-scientific survey that yielded 15,000 global responses. Africa appears on a few pages.
  20. InMobi Mobile Insights Report. {http://www.inmobi.com/inmobiblog/files/2011/06/InMobi_Network_Research_Infographic_Africa_April.png} April 2011 mobile market overview of ad impressions and devices.
  21. ICT Infrastructure Across the Continent. {http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INFORMATIONANDCOMMUNICATIONANDTECHNOLOGIES/Resources/EnglishICT_flyer.pdf} A World Bank flier containing various investment and ICT stats.
  22. New Africa broadband ‘ready’. {http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8255695.stm} Interactive map showing broadband subscriptions and planned/active international cables by year.
  23. Insights into the Mobile Internet in Africa. {http://www.slideshare.net/jonhoehler/insights-into-the-mobile-internet-in-africa-8654168} Slide presentation citing a handful of mobile trade publications and data points.
  24. So you still think the internet is free… {http://yuxiyou.net/open/} The who, what, how, and why of Internet censorship via infographic. Take these with a grain of salt.
  25. Internet in Africa. {http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_in_Africa} Summary of current situation of Internet access in Africa, including number of hosts, IXP traffic, “regulamentation”, and more.

2010:

  1. EIU Digital Economy Rankings, 2010. {http://www-935.ibm.com/services/us/gbs/bus/pdf/eiu_digital-economy-rankings-2010_final_web.pdf} A handful of African nations are included in these rankings of infrastructure, business environment, social environment, government policy, and consumer/business adoption.
  2. Futures of Technology in Africa. {http://www.stt.nl/uploads/documents/192.pdf} A 2010 research report published by STT Netherlands that mixes data with prose on the future of African technology over the course of 11 chapters.
  3. State of the Mobile Web, December 2010. {http://www.opera.com/smw/2010/12/#spotlight} Part 4 of this report by Opera lists top African countries using the browser, along with growth trends, web habits, and handsets used.
  4. Community Translation in Africa. {http://www.w3.org/International/multilingualweb/madrid/slides/gikunda.pdf} An excellent presentation by Google on efforts to translate the Web. Includes multiple charts.
  5. Population per African blog. {http://worldtechstartups.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/population-per-blog-v2.jpg} A July 2010 estimate/index of how many blogs exist in specific African nations. Compiled by WorldTechStartups and TechMasai, using stats from Afrigator.
  6. The rise of 3G. {http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/material/FactsFigures2010.pdf} Global statistics on the status of 2G/3G with growth rates and charts by continent.
  7. The Internet in Africa. {http://www.gandalf.it/data/africeng.htm} A wide range of stats and charts up through 2010.
  8. Wireless Intelligence: LTE to account for 4% of world’s mobile connections by 2015. {https://www.wirelessintelligence.com/analysis/2010/12/lte-to-account-for-4-of-worlds-mobile-connections-by-2015/} Africa is expected to account for 1% of global LTE networks by 2013 due to regulatory challenges.
  9. AdMob Mobile Metrics May 2010. {http://metrics.admob.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/May-2010-AdMob-Mobile-Metrics-Highlights.pdf} Device share by global region. Nokia models lead in Africa.

2009:

  1. Information Society Statistical Profiles 2009 Africa. {http://www.itu.int/dms_pub/itu-d/opb/ind/D-IND-RPM.AF-2009-PDF-E.pdf} A 76-page document from the ITU. Very informative with some of the best information available at this time.
  2. Analysis of Country Reports on WSIS Action Lines 1-9. {1-3, 4-6, 7-9} Results of a 2008 ICT survey issued to African nations which asked about policy, e-governance, e-business, public access, security, e-health, and more.
  3. Costs of Broadband Internet Access. {http://confluence.slac.stanford.edu/download/attachments/56493168/africa-cost.png} The cost of bandwidth in Africa is off the chart compared with more developed nations. 2009.
  4. Minimum RTT for Countries of the World, first half 2009. {http://confluence.slac.stanford.edu/download/attachments/56493168/world-min-rtt-bar.png} Essentially, a graph of network speeds, by nation, for the world.
  5. Internet Usage in Sub-Saharan Africa, Aug 2009. {http://www.gottaquirk.com/2009/08/28/friday-fact-box-internet-usage-in-sub-saharan-africa} Sub-Saharan Internet stats and an outlook for SA.
  6. Facebook Users in Nigeria and Africa, Aug 8, 2009. {http://webtrendsng.com/blog/facebook-users-in-nigeria-and-africa} Facebook trends and user data for the social network.
  7. “Global Internet Audience Surpasses 1 Billion Visitors,“ comScore, Jan. 23, 2009. {http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2009/1/Global_Internet_Audience_1_Billion} Another source of worldwide Internet usage information.

2008:

  1. Sub-Saharan Africa – Revised Statistics (2008). {https://confluence.slac.stanford.edu/display/IEPM/Sub-Saharan+Africa+-+Revised+Statistics+%282008%29} Charts galore, mostly from 2007.
  2. NSRC: Connectivity Information by Country. {http://nsrc.org/AFRICA/africa.html} Database of dozens of links and historical network information by country. Hasn’t been updated in a couple of years.
  3. ICT Access & Usage in South Africa. {http://www.share4dev.info/telecentreskb/documents/4658.pdf} Results of a household user survey.
  4. iPhones Without Borders. {http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=21&qpmr=300&qpdt=1&qpct=0&qpcal=1&qptimeframe=Y} A list of countries using the iPhone (illegally and legally) and the overall web-browsing usage share of the iPhone for the country. No longer updated.

2007:

  1. Africa, ICT Indictators, 2007. {http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/statistics/at_glance/af_ictindicators_2007.html} Number of telephone lines, mobile subscribers, and Internet users by country. There are 5x as many mobile subscribers as Internet users.
  2. Information and communication infrastructure in Africa and the uptake of eHealth. {http://www.slideshare.net/ciscogiii/ict-infrastructure-in-africa-and-the-uptake-of-ehealth-1577457} An ITU slide-show from 2007.
  3. Scientific Measure of Africa’s Connectivity. {http://sdu.ictp.it/pinger/Pinger-Africa.pdf} Results of a project that measured connection performance from the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center to parts of Africa.
  4. Internet users per 100 inhabitants graph. {http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Internet_users_per_100_inhabitants_1997-2007_ITU.png} A chart from ITU data, 1997-2007.
  5. 2007 African – Broadband and Internet Markets. {http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c74904} Summary of a 2007 report on Africa’s digital networks.

2004:

  1. Teledensity and ICT Rankings 1993-2003. {http://link.wits.ac.za/journal/j05-kelly-ict-rankings.pdf} A look at the progress of telecommunications, by country.

2003:

  1. ICT in Africa: A Status Report. {http://www.share4dev.info/telecentreskb/documents/4232.pdf} Telecommunications usage in Africa from 1998-2002.

2002:

  1. Nua Internet How Many Online? {http://web.archive.org/web/20040624081053/http://www.nua.ie/surveys/how_many_online/africa.html} SANGONeT and ITU Internet user stats from 1998-2001. From Web Archive.

2001:

  1. Africa Map of Internet Hosts. {http://web.archive.org/web/20040606000747/http://www3.wn.apc.org/africa/users.htm} International Bandwidth and dialup access costs by nation (and more from Mike Jensen). From Web Archive.

2000:

  1. Status of Information and Communication Technologies in Africa, December 2000. {http://www.uneca.org/aisi/nici/documents/status_of_information_and_commun.htm} Regulatory agencies, mobile networks, and privatization status by nation.

1999:

  1. An overview of the African ICT Sector – 1998/99. {http://www.uneca.org/aisi/nici/country_profiles/nici%20indicators.htm} A snapshot of how African connectivity stood in 1999. Good as a reference.

Selected Internal Posts:

  1. Facebook user growth rates in Africa (June 2010 – December 2011) {http://www.oafrica.com/statistics/facebook-user-growth-rates-in-africa-june-2010-december-2011/}
  2. African Internet penetration versus urban population {http://www.oafrica.com/statistics/chart-african-internet-penetration-versus-urban-population-2010/} Scatter plot of Internet user data and % urban/rural for each African country. Data from 2010.
  3. Household Internet speeds for 25 African countries, cities {http://www.oafrica.com/broadband/household-internet-speeds/} Results from SpeedTest.net performance tests show consumer bandwidth speeds 1) as of April 2011 2) over time 3) by city 4) by ISP.
  4. African full Internet access timeline {http://www.oafrica.com/statistics/full-internet-access-timeline/} A timeline of full Internet access dates for each African country using NSRC reports.
  5. African Leaders on Facebook, October 2011 {http://www.oafrica.com/uncategorized/updated-african-leaders-on-facebook-october-2011/} – Also see similar data from March 2011 and July 2010.
  6. Local content generation for Wikipedia, Google {http://www.oafrica.com/web/local-content-generation-for-wikipedia-google/}
  7. Timeline: Microsoft in Africa, 1992-Present. {http://www.oafrica.com/business/timeline-microsoft-in-africa-1992-present/}
  8. Internet Penetration vs. HDI, 2010. {http://www.oafrica.com/statistics/internet-penetration-vs-human-development-index-2010/} Human Development Index vs. Internet user rates, by country.
  9. Internet Penetration, 2000-2008. {http://www.oafrica.com/statistics/internet-penetration} Summary of Internet user rates, from Internet World Stats data.
  10. Corruption Perceptions Index vs. Internet Penetration, 2010 {http://www.oafrica.com/statistics/corruption-perceptions-index-vs-internet-penetration/}
  11. Charting the number of African domains by country, 2009 {http://www.oafrica.com/statistics/charting-the-number-of-african-domains-by-country/}
  12. Internet Penetration vs. HDI, 2009. {http://www.oafrica.com/statistics/hdi-table} Human Development Index vs. Internet user rates, by country.
  13. World Bank’s Africa Development Indicators, 2008 {http://www.oafrica.com/tag/world-databank}