Bangladesh jumps 27 notches in digital quality of life index

Bangladesh climbed up 27 notches to rank 76th in the world in the digital wellbeing thanks to the country's performance in internet affordability, security and quality, according to the Digital Quality of Life (DQL) Index 2022.

Netherlands-based cybersecurity company Surfshark released the fourth annual edition of the index on 12 September based on their study on the quality of digital wellbeing across 117 countries of the world.

The index evaluated the countries on five fundamental pillars – internet affordability, internet quality, electronic infrastructure, electronic security, and electronic government.

Bangladesh has significantly improved in four of the five indicators this year except for the electronic government pillar, where its position was unchanged.

In response to The Business Standard's query on Bangladesh's improvement, Vaiva Norkunaite, PR manager of Surfshark said the country's internet affordability and quality have increased followed by improvements in electronic infrastructure and cybersecurity in 2022 compared to last year.

As a result, Bangladesh moved up to rank 76th from last year's 103rd position among 110 countries and was placed 23rd among 34 Asian countries.

Among five South Asian countries, assessed in the index, Bangladesh was the second best in digital wellbeing after India, which ranked 59th globally. Sri Lanka, Nepal and Pakistan ranked respectively 89th, 94th and 96th in the world.  

How Bangladesh performed in the five pillars

Bangladesh has performed best in internet affordability with a big jump of 55 notches which put the country in the 29th position globally under the criteria from last year's 84th.

According to the index study, Bangladeshi residents can buy 1GB of mobile internet for as cheap as 28 seconds of work per month.

"It seems mobile internet in Bangladesh has become significantly more affordable in 2022 compared to 2021 placing the country 8th in the world (previously 56th)," Vaiva Norkunaite said.

While, broadband internet costs people around 4 hours 32 minutes of their work time each month.

In internet quality, evaluated on speed, stability and speed improvement for both mobile and broadband internet, Bangladesh ranked 67th from last year's 89th position.

The index says, the country's average broadband internet speed was 43.03Mbps from last year's 36.02Mbps, while mobile internet speed hovered a little over 14Mbps.

Bangladesh also improved in the electronic security pillar, measured on cybersecurity and data protection laws, with 28 places up from last year.   

Under electronic infrastructure, gauged on internet users per 100 inhabitants and network readiness, Bangladesh moved up four notches to 85th this year.

In electronic government, which assessed online service index and AI readiness, Bangladesh's position was unchanged at 86th.

Europe continues to lead

Israel topped the ranking followed by Denmark, Germany, France, Sweden, Netherlands, Finland, Japan, United Kingdom and South Korea in the top ten.

Besides, only 18 countries of the top 50 are from outside Europe. Congo DR, Yemen and Ethiopia were listed at the bottom.