全球資訊發達地區排名

Last month the NHK News on-line reported the following:

“ＩＴランキング”で日本は１２位

10月8日 0時3分

電気通信に関する国連の専門機関ＩＴＵ＝国際電気通信連合は、ＩＴがどれだけ普及しているかを調査した国や地域別のランキングを発表し、日本はインターネットを利用する人の増加率が低かったとして１２位でした。
スイスのジュネーブに本部があるＩＴＵは、毎年携帯電話やインターネット、それに高速大容量のデータ通信＝ブロードバンドの普及率などを数値化して国や地域のＩＴの普及度合いをランキングとして発表しています。
７日に発表されたことしのランキングで、日本は総合的な得点では去年を上回ったものの国別の順位では去年の８位から１２位に後退しました。
これは、無線を利用したブロードバンドの普及率が大幅に伸びたオーストラリアが１５位から１１位に、イギリスが１１位から８位に順位を上げるなど日本を追い抜いたためです。
さらに、日本はインターネットを利用する人の増加率が低かったことが順位が下がった理由に挙げられています。
ランキングの１位は３年連続で韓国で、インターネットを利用できる世帯の割合が９７％余りと最も高いうえ、幼いころからＩＴに親しんだいわゆる「デジタルネイティブ」の割合が高いことも理由に挙げられています。
ランキングの２位はスウェーデン、３位はアイスランドと、ブロードバンドの普及率が高い北欧の国が上位を占めました。

ランキング上位は

ＩＴ普及度ランキングで上位１０位までの国や地域は次のとおりでした。
１位、韓国。
２位、スウェーデン。
３位、アイスランド。
４位、デンマーク。
５位、フィンランド。
６位、ノルウェー。
７位、オランダ。
８位、イギリス。
９位、ルクセンブルク。
１０位、香港。

(試譯文)

The United Nations’ agency that specialized in telecommunication, the ITU- International Telecommunications Union announced its investigation by ranking according to the country or area where IT which had spread; it was noted that Japan was in the 12th place and that its rate of increase in people using the Internet was low.

ITU, which had its headquarters in Geneva of Switzerland, evaluated the mobile phone, the diffusion rate of the Internet and the mass data-communications: the broadband high-speed etc. every year and had announced the ranking based on the degree of diffusion of IT of a country or an area.

In the ranking for this year which was announced on the 7^th (October), Japan’s total score had exceeded that of last year. Yet in the ranking according to country, it went down from the 8th place of last year to the 12th place.

Australia where the diffusion rate of the wireless broadband had expanded considerably went up from the 15th place to the 11th place; Britain rose in ranking from the 11th place to the 8th place and as such surpassed Japan.

Furthermore, the reason given for Japan’s fallen ranking was the low rate of increase in the people that used the Internet.

South Korea was in the 1st place in ranking for three consecutive years. The rate of the household which could use the Internet was the highest which was more than 97%. The high percentage of the so-called "digital natives", that was those who were familiar with IT since they were young, was also given as a reason.

Second place in the ranking was the country of Sweden, the 3rd place was Iceland. Countries in Northern Europe where there was high diffusion rate in broadband had occupied the rankings at the top.

Ranking at the top:

Ranking by country or area at the top 10 in IT diffusion rate was as follows:

The 1st place, South Korea.

The 2nd place, Sweden.

The 3rd place, Iceland.

The 4th place, Denmark.

The 5th place, Finland.

The 6th place, Norway.

The 7th place, the Netherlands.

The 8th place, Britain.

The 9th place, Luxembourg.

The 10th place, Hong Kong.

For me, it is quite surprising to note that Hong Kong is at the 10^th place.