Internet Usage Has Risen 14% Every Year In Latin America & The Caribbean Since 2010

Internet usage in Latin America and the Caribbean is reported to have risen dramatically between 2010 and 2015.

Research by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) recently revealed that the number of homes coming online in the region has risen by an average of 14.1% every year since 2010.

This means that around 43.4% of households now have access to the internet – a figure that is almost double the 2010 rate.

Mobile broadband use has also spiked, with figures rising from 7% in 2010 to 58% in 2015, according to ECLAC’s latest report, “The State of Broadband in Latin America and the Caribbean 2016”.

The change is thanks to lower internet costs and an uptick in consumers using mobile to access the web.

This has been shown by a drop in what percentage of their monthly wage people are spending on staying online –  in 2010, broadband owners were spending around 18% of their monthly salary on internet access, and now this figure has dropped to just 2%.

The biggest spikes in internet usage are said to have been seen in Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador and Bolivia, with 55% of the region coming online in 2015.

And as the report stated: “There is a great difference in access levels between the countries of the region: of the 24 countries analyzed in 2015, three had household Internet penetration that was below 15%; fifteen were between 15% and 45%; another three were between 45% and 56%; and only Chile, Costa Rica and Uruguay reached 60%.”

Check out the full report here.