ATLAS · COMPARE
The Digital Divide
Does a country going online track how rich it is — and where is the gap closing fastest?
Watch the countries lift off the map and sort themselves by wealth and connection. The cloud tilts up to the right because the two move together — that’s the shape of a strong correlation.
The two, blended into one map
Same data, a different read. Instead of one metric as colour and the other as bubbles, the two blend: each country is shaded by where it falls on both at once — so the map shows where gdp per capita and internet users are high together, and where they pull apart.
How strongly do they move together?
Across the 210 countries with both figures, gdp per capita and internet users move together a strong amount — as one rises, so does the other (correlation r = 0.75). That’s a clear, dependable pattern; the map below makes it visible at a glance.
Measured across the 210countries that have both figures, in each metric’s own scale (log scale where the map uses one). The scatter morph above plots these same countries; the dashed line is their best fit. Correlation is not causation — it only measures whether the two tend to track each other.
On the blended map, the darkest-teal countries are both rich AND highly online — wealth and connectivity reinforcing each other. The palest are poor and offline. The colours that matter most are the off-diagonal ones: a green-leaning country is wealthier than it is wired (connectivity left on the table), while a blue-leaning one is more online than its income alone would predict — a leapfrog onto mobile internet. Then hit Scatter: the cloud of dots tilts up to the right, the visual signature of two things that rise together.
Who fits the pattern — and who breaks it
On the scatter, the rule-followers sit tight to the dashed line; the rule-breakers fly far from it. On the left, the countries that most clearly follow the relationship; on the right, the ones that most defy it.
| Country | GDP / capita | Internet % |
|---|---|---|
| Qatar | $76.7K | 98.1% |
| Hong Kong SAR, China | $54.1K | 95.8% |
| Benin | $1.5K | 34.0% |
| Seychelles | $17.9K | 87.8% |
| Niger | $735 | 15.6% |
| Tanzania | $1.2K | 31.2% |
| Country | GDP / capita | Internet % |
|---|---|---|
| Turks and Caicos Islands | $37.5K | 0.0% |
| Northern Mariana Islands | $23.8K | 0.0% |
| American Samoa | $18K | 0.0% |
| Kyrgyz Republic | $2.4K | 92.0% |
| Greenland | $58.5K | 69.5% |
| Virgin Islands (U.S.) | $44.3K | 64.4% |
Understand the underlying numbers
ATLAS · FIELD GUIDE
GDP per Capita, and Why It Isn't the Same as How Rich People Are
GDP per capita is the standard yardstick for comparing how wealthy countries are — but it's an average that hides as much as it reveals. A plain-language guide to what it measures, why 'current US dollars' makes some comparisons misleading, and how to read the world map of it without overreaching.
ATLAS · FIELD GUIDE
The Digital Divide, Measured: What 'Internet Users' Actually Counts
The share of a country online is one of the fastest-moving statistics in the world. A plain-language guide to what counts as an 'internet user', why the figures lag reality, and how to read the world map of the digital divide as it closes.
Keep exploring
GEOGRAPHY ↔ DATA
Try another pairing — watch the whole world rearrange itself by the numbers.