Understanding the world · Economy & society

Why does a third of humanity still live without the Internet?

Kenya invented payment by phone ten years before Europe, because it had almost no bank branches.

One third of humanity offline3 min read5 partsQuiz of 9 questions
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Marco Gualazzini · Playing in the Nuba mountains · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Part 1 of 5 · freeIntroduction

While rich societies live through a revolution driven by artificial intelligence, a brutal fact remains: 2.7 billion people, about one third of humanity, still have no access to the Internet.

This digital divide is not just a technical lag. It has become a real barrier that keeps millions of people away from education, health care and the world economy. Here is why it persists, and how some countries are trying to close it.

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  1. 2A world map running at two speeds
  2. 3When missing infrastructure forces innovation
  3. 4Satellite Internet, a solution with conditions
  4. 5Artificial intelligence, a new gap
Open-book quiz9 questions whose answers are in the text.
Glossary8 terms explained in a tap.
30 languagesThe same course, from French to Japanese.