ATLAS · FUSION VIEW
The Digital Divide
Wealth painted as colour, the share of people online as bubbles. Read on one map whether getting online still follows getting richer — and spot the countries that are far more (or far less) connected than their income alone would predict.
COLOUR
GDP per capita
GDP divided by population, current US$, World Bank.
World Bank Open Data · 2024
BUBBLE SIZE
Internet Users
Share of people who used the Internet recently, World Bank.
World Bank Open Data · 2025
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.
Correlation is measured across the 210countries that have both figures, in each metric’s own scale (log scale where the map uses one). Correlation is not causation — it only measures whether the two tend to track each other.
The deepest-green countries are the richest per person; the biggest blue bubbles are the most-connected. Where the two line up — wealthy and wired, or poor and offline — the digital divide is just the wealth divide wearing a different hat. The interesting countries are the mismatches: a modest economy with an outsized bubble has leapfrogged onto mobile internet ahead of its income, while a richer country with a small bubble is leaving connectivity on the table.
Who fits the pattern — and who breaks it
Two ways to read the map. On the left, the countries that most clearly follow the relationship; on the right, the ones that most defy it — the exceptions worth a closer look.
| 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.
See each layer on its own
TWO LAYERS, ONE MAP
Try another pairing, or build your own in the live Atlas.