The digital divide between Spain and the most developed countries of the European Union continues to grow. Specifically, during the third quarter of 2011 the indicator of the Information Society (ISI-everis/IESE) in Europe fell 0.7% to 7.12 points, while the Spanish one was reduced by 1.3% down to 6.11 points over the same period last year.
However, the greatest distance with the European average is Portugal, a country in which the ISI was reduced by 5% to 5.52 points, while Germany recorded the largest increase up to 8.04 points, a rise of 1.7%. Across the Atlantic, Argentina was the country that experienced the largest rise of 5.8%, followed by Chile and Colombia, both with increases of 4.2%.
This information comes from the publication of the third quarter of 2011 of the reports prepared by the Business Center in Latin America (CELA) from IESE University of Navarra and everis, multinational consulting firm specializing in strategy, applications development and maintenance of technology and outsourcing. This Information Society (ISI-everis/IESE) indicator shows Latin America's most advanced countries and its position in ICT compared with the United States and the European Union.
Especifically, the Latin American countries average rose 2.4% over the same period of previous year to 4.49 points, a new record. However, although the relative situation of Latin America has never been so good as today, when analyzing individual variables, the situation is not homogeneous.
The six Latin American countries analyzed in the report during the third quarter of 2011 increased their scores for eight consecutive quarters. In addition, the ISI of Brazil, Colombia, Chile and Mexico set new highs.
Spain worse than the European average
Regarding hardware, in Spain there were 434 computers per thousand inhabitants in the third quarter of 2011, equivalent to almost half of the EU average and almost one-third of the average of U.S. with 1,212 computers. While the European average was 846 computers per thousand inhabitants, representing an increase of 4.3% over the same period last year, in Spain the increase was 0.5%. This relegates our country to the second worst country in Europe, only above Italy, which has reduced the number of computers per thousand inhabitants by 0.9%.
Meanwhile, in Latin America the number of computers has increased by a similar proportion to that of prior periods. Thus, there are 274 computers per thousand people in the third quarter of 2011 representing an annual increase of 12.6%. Peru, Argentina and Brazil increased even more than the regional average. With regard to social networks, in Spain there are 295 users per thousand inhabitants, compared with 326 of the EU. However, the growth was significantly higher than in neighboring countries. The study measures the number of active users of Facebook.com that have increased 41% vs. 34% of the EU average.
In the Americas, the popularity of social networks increased at a much higher rate. The average in Latin America was 101%, with notable variations such as Brazil, where the number of users has increased by 355% over the third quarter of 2011, although during the study period there were only 96 users per thousand people. Chile and Argentina were the countries of the area that used these networks the most, with 480 and 357 active users per thousand people, respectively. This data shows that Chile is the country with more social networks users, only behind the U.S., with 485 and an increase of 25.4%. United Kingdom is in the third place with 473 active users per thousand people and an increase of 17.4% over the third quarter of 2010.