Close to universalizing Internet access, Brazil still has a majority of the population with low significant connectivity, reveals new study

Released this Tuesday (16) at a CGI.br event in the Federal District, a survey by Cetic.br/NIC.br identified deficiencies in access, use, and appropriation of the network among Brazilians; despite this, there was gradual improvement between 2017 and 2023

Although the country is moving towards universalizing Internet access, with 84% of its inhabitants aged 10 or older being network users, only 22% of Brazilians from that age have satisfactory connectivity conditions. For the majority (57%), the reality is less positive. This finding is part of the unprecedented study "Significant Connectivity: proposals for measurement and the portrait of the population in Brazil", released this Tuesday (16), in Brasília (DF), by the Brazilian Network Information Center (NIC.br), the executive branch of the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee (CGI.br). Conducted by the Regional Center for Studies on the Development of the Information Society (Cetic.br/NIC.br), the survey offers a detailed assessment of the gaps in access, use, and appropriation of the Internet in the national context. The material will also be presented during the G20 meeting this month.

The study proposed a method to measure the quality and effectiveness of the population's access to digital technologies, based on the construction of a scale derived from processing indicators of ICT Households - the most comprehensive household sample survey specializing in information and communication technologies conducted in the country. As an analytical reference, the idea of 'significant connectivity' was used, a concept under construction, supported by the understanding that the connection should allow satisfactory use of various services on the Internet, enabling the exploitation of opportunities in the online environment.

Nine indicators were defined, grouped into different dimensions (financial accessibility, access to equipment, connection quality, and usage environment). Four describe individual attributes, and the other five reflect household characteristics. They are: cost of household connection, mobile plan, devices per capita, computer at home, diversified device use, type of household connection, speed of household connection, frequency of Internet use, and places of diversified use.

Based on the sum of the 9 selected variables, researchers established different levels of significant connectivity, resulting in a scale from 0 to 9 for each person in the sample, where score 0 indicates the absence of all characteristics measured, and 9 denotes the presence of all of them. Among the 4 dimensions analyzed, financial accessibility indicators showed the worst performance, followed by access to equipment and connection quality.

“The complexity of the current scenario, marked by rapid technological advances, has demanded an expansion of understanding about digital inclusion. Considering the level of connectivity of a country by the number of Internet users among its inhabitants is no longer sufficient. Recent debates in Brazil and abroad on the issue emphasize the need to think about connectivity broadly. To better understand our reality, we decided to take a step further and, in an unprecedented initiative, we investigated the quality of Brazilians' connectivity through different perspectives,” highlights Alexandre Barbosa, manager of Cetic.br|NIC.br.

“We are not defending that this is a unique and exclusive approach to measure the phenomenon, but an analytical exercise that will need to be reviewed in the future. We know that the quality conditions of access change as the technologies change, and the uses people make of them vary. Our intention is to contribute to the global debate based on a concrete experience,” adds Barbosa.

Majority in the worst range

The results by connectivity ranges reveal that the largest group observed is the one with scores of up to 2 points, corresponding to a third (33%) of the population. If this proportion is added to the group occupying the range of 3 to 4 points (24%), it is possible to state that 57% of Brazilians are in a situation of low significant connectivity. Only 22% reached the highest range (7 to 9), and 20% were in the 5 to 6 points range.

Considering exclusively as users those who connected to the Internet at least once in the 3 months prior to the survey, the percentages are: 23% (0 to 2 points), 27% (3 to 4 points), 23% (5 to 6 points), and 26% (7 to 9 points). Meanwhile, non-users obtained the following results: 86% (0 to 2 points), 11% (3 to 4 points), and 3% (5 to 6 points).

“Even non-direct Internet users might display some degree of connectivity if they live or reside in a place with a connection, for example, which would increase the chances of that individual benefiting from the network at least indirectly, through the help of relatives or acquaintances,” explains Graziela Castello, coordinator of sectoral studies at Cetic.br and responsible for the survey.

Despite the challenging scenario, there was a gradual improvement over the historic series of ICT Households, conducted by Cetic.br continuously for 19 years. Retrospective analysis of significant connectivity levels identified a reduction in the disparity between the groups sitting at the extremes of the scale. In 2017, 48% of the population had a score between 0 and 2, and only 10% were in the range of 7 to 9 points—a gap of 38 percentage points. In 2019, the difference between them decreased to 29 p.p.; in 2021, to 22 p.p.; and, in 2023, to 11 p.p.

“This picture suggests a positive trend, but even though progressive improvement was detected, speed is needed to reduce the connectivity disparities in Brazil, which directly reflect the inequalities marking the country's social structure,” warns the coordinator.

Layers and dimensions

The study incorporated analysis in two layers, considering territorial, sociodemographic, and socioeconomic dimensions, and measuring the qualification for Internet use, as well as the types of activities developed online. “With the first layer, we tried to identify the gaps in digital inclusion. The second concerns the assessment of connectivity levels by digital skills and online activities, allowing us to advance our understanding of the population's conditions for seizing opportunities and managing risks posed by the digital world. Together, they allowed us to understand the nuances of digital connectivity in the country,” comments Graziela Castello.

The territorial dimension (with cuts by country regions, rural vs. urban areas, federation units, and the size of municipalities by population size) covers the geographic distribution of access and its quality, while the sociodemographic dimension analyzes connectivity concerning the presence of children in the household, age, gender, color, and race. The socioeconomic dimension considers the relationship between connectivity and individual characteristics such as: socioeconomic class, presence in the workforce, education, and being (or not) a social program beneficiary. An evaluation based on these factors showed that the worst conditions for significant connectivity are concentrated among historically excluded population groups.

Main results

North and Northeast have the worst significant connectivity conditions, with only 11% and 10% of the population, respectively, in the range between 7 and 9 points, and 44% and 48% (in the same order) occupying the other extreme of the scale (up to 2 points)—the national average is 33%. On the other hand, South (27%) and Southeast (31%) recorded the best rates, being the only regions in the country where the number of inhabitants in the highest range is greater than those in the worst range.

The area and size of the city of residence also demonstrate a strong association with the level of significant connectivity. The larger the city, the better the performance. In those with up to 50,000 inhabitants, 44% of the population is in the worst range of the scale. In those with over 500,000 inhabitants, the negative proportion drops almost by half (24%). Regarding the area, while 30% of urban inhabitants are in the worst range group (up to 2 points), 54% of the population in rural areas is in this condition.

In the age group analysis, the survey confirms the greater vulnerability to digital exclusion of the elderly: 61% of Brazilians aged 60 or over have the lowest connectivity significant scores (up to 2 points), a proportion much higher than that verified in the country overall (33%). Contrary to common belief, the data dispel the notion that younger people would present better indicators in the same metric. The study reveals that only 16% and 24% of those aged 10 to 15 and 16 to 24, respectively, are in the highest range (between 7 and 9 points). The highest levels occur precisely among age groups with the highest incidence in the labor market (between 25 and 44 years).

“The study questions the idea that the hurdles to digital inclusion would be alleviated by a potential generational transition, as youth would already be super connected. When we look at Internet users in general, this is confirmed, but when we complicate the analysis and understand connectivity as a whole, it becomes clear that a significant portion of this group has precarious connectivity conditions and will enter the labor market at a significant disadvantage. The reality of a young person living on the periphery without network quality is very different from that of a young person of the same age with better conditions. These differences exacerbate already existing inequalities,” warns Graziela Castello.

The proportion of people with better significant connectivity is also considerably higher among male interviewees (28%), compared to female interviewees (17%)—11 p.p. difference. The study emphasized that when examined separately, some indicators of access to technology do not demonstrate the inequalities between men and women. For example, the prevalence of Internet users in Brazil shows little significant distance between these two groups. However, a combined analysis of indicators reveals more precarious connectivity conditions for the female population, highlighting pre-existing barriers to productive inclusion, income parity, public influence, and participation in the country’s social, political, and economic life.

This inequality is also evident in analyzing data based on respondents' self-declared color or race. Among whites, 32% are in the highest range (score between 7 and 9), while among blacks and browns, the percentage falls to 18%.

The survey also identified that the higher the education level, the smaller the proportion of Brazilians with a score between 0 and 2 and the greater the proportion of those in the 7 to 9 range. Among those with only Elementary School, the majority (68%) is in the worst score range, and only 3% are in the best. The scenario is reversed among those with Higher Education: only 7% obtained the worst score, while 59% achieved the highest scores.

A great distance is also revealed in comparing social strata. In Class A, the vast majority (83%) are in the best score range, and only 1% in the worst. Conversely, among people in Classes DE, the reality is entirely different: only 1% are in the best range, and the majority (64%) are in the worst.

 

Qualification for Internet use

Researchers analyzed the relationship between different levels of significant connectivity and the types of Internet use and the qualification of Brazilians for using the network. The evaluation was based on digital skills and activities conducted in the online environment.

Processed for the total number of Internet users nationwide—not the population as a whole—the results show a direct association between significant connectivity and digital skills. The better the significant connectivity scores, the greater the technical skills to handle technologies, highlighting that those with more fragile access conditions are precisely those with fewer skills to mitigate the risks associated with network uses.

Researchers also analyzed 14 different activities, grouped into three major types: "communication and entertainment," "information search," and "transactional activities"—the latter involving the exchange of information, goods, or services between users, companies, or organizations. The relationship between better connectivity conditions and greater incidence of conducting activities in the virtual environment is explicit, although in various gradations.

For primary sociability or entertainment activities (such as sending instant messages, using social networks, and watching online videos), for example, the level of significant connectivity had less effect, unlike what happened in the case of more complex activities with greater potential for people’s emancipation, such as those associated with searching for information about rights and services, and transactional nature activities, like financial operations and using government digital services.

The full study is available on the website: https://cetic.br/pt/publicacao/conectividade-significativa-propostas-para-medicao-e-o-retrato-da-populacao-no-brasil/.

Seminar

“Significant Connectivity: proposals for measurement and the portrait of the population in Brazil" is part of the NIC.br Study Notebooks series. Besides Graziela Castello, the research coordinator, the publication included participation from Sonia Jorge and Onica N. Mkwakwa (Global Digital Inclusion Partnership), International Telecommunication Union (ITU), and Fernando Rojas (Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean of the United Nations - ECLAC).

The document launch occurred during the Significant Connectivity Seminar, held by the CGI.br Steering Committee for Universalization and Digital Inclusion, on April 16 and 17, in Brasília. To revisit the event, access the NIC.br channel on YouTube.

About Cetic.br
The Regional Center for Studies on the Development of the Information Society (Cetic.br), part of NIC.br, is responsible for producing indicators and statistics on Internet access and use in Brazil, disseminating periodic analyses and information on the network’s development in the country. Cetic.br|NIC.br is also a Regional Study Center under the auspices of UNESCO, completing 18 years of operation in 2023. More information available at https://cetic.br/.

About the Brazilian Network Information Center – NIC.br
The Brazilian Network Information Center — NIC.br (https://nic.br/) is a private nonprofit civil entity responsible for operating the .br domain, distributing IP numbers, and registering Autonomous Systems in the country. NIC.br implements CGI.br’s decisions and projects since 2005, and all collected resources come from its activities, which are of an essentially private nature. It conducts actions and projects that bring benefits to the Internet infrastructure in Brazil. NIC.br includes: Registro.br (https://registro.br/), CERT.br (https://cert.br/), Ceptro.br (https://ceptro.br/), Cetic.br (https://cetic.br/), IX.br (https://ix.br/) and Ceweb.br (https://ceweb.br/), as well as projects like InternetSegura.br (https://internetsegura.br/) and the Portal of Best Practices for the Internet in Brazil (https://bcp.nic.br/). It also houses the W3C Chapter São Paulo office (https://w3c.br/).

About the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee – CGI.br
The Brazilian Internet Steering Committee, responsible for establishing strategic guidelines related to the use and development of the Internet in Brazil, coordinates and integrates all initiatives of Internet services in the country, promoting the technical quality, innovation, and spread of the services offered. Based on the principles of multisectoralism and transparency, CGI.br represents a democratic Internet governance model, internationally praised, in which all sectors of society are participants equitably in its decisions. One of its formulations are the 10 Principles for Internet Governance and Use (https://cgi.br/resolucoes/documento/2009/003). More information available at https://cgi.br/.

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