The analytical report, “Internet development trends in Russia and foreign countries,” was published on the website of the Coordination Center for TLDs .RU/.РФ. The report was prepared by the Institute for Statistical Studies and the Economics of Knowledge of the National Research University Higher School of Economics and is based on the results of research on the analysis of internet development trends in Russia and foreign countries. This research has been carried out by the Coordination Center and HSE University for three years now.
The report presents a comprehensive picture of the current state of the internet in the world and compares the main indicators of the telecommunications infrastructure development and the use of the internet by people and businesses from country to country. The report also shows the timeline of internet development in the 20th and 21st centuries as well as national trend data. A special section includes the main indicators of the development of internet technologies in several Russian regions. The data and conclusions are illustrated with over 60 images, diagrams and tables.
The main conclusion is that the internet has become a universal environment for cooperation between people, business, and government bodies. According to International Telecommunication Union’s data, every second person in the world used the internet in 2018. The number of internet users in Russia is also growing each year. Over two thirds of Russians aged 15–74 use the internet every day and another 11 percent at least once a week. Traditionally, the highest use rate is in the EU countries, where over 83 percent of the adult population navigates the web regularly.
In 2018, six of ten Russians aged 15–74 used social networks. Russia is in the top 15 countries in this indicator. In 2018, 11.1 percent of Russians were employed in areas with intense use of the information and communication technologies, which is similar to the average number in the European Union. The research is based on official data from the Federal Service for State Statistics, the Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media, the OECD, Eurostat, the International Telecommunication Union, and the HSE University Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge’s data. The report is intended for a wide audience that is interested in issues of internet development and digitalization progress in Russia and abroad.
