The 20 Most and Least Wired Countries

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A report published Oct. 7 by the International Telecommunication Union, a branch of the United Nations focusing on information and communication technologies, reveals which countries have the highest percentage of digital natives, or youth ages 15 to 24 who have been using the Internet for five years.

Here are the 20 most and least wired countries, with numbers indicating the percentage of youth who are "wired" relative to the country's total population and relative to the total youth population.

  1. Iceland: 13.9 percent of total population (95.9 percent of total youth)
  2. New Zealand: 13.6 percent (94.8 percent)
  3. Korea (Rep.): 13.5 percent (99.6 percent)
  4. Malaysia: 13.4 percent (74.7 percent)
  5. Lithuania: 13.2 percent (92.7 percent)
  6. United States: 13.1 percent (95.6 percent)
  7. Barbados: 13.1 percent (90.5 percent)
  8. Slovakia: 12.7 percent (92.9 percent)
  9. Latvia: 12.3 percent (97.0 percent)
  10. Denmark: 12.3 percent (96.9 percent)
  11. Norway: 12.3 percent (93.3 percent)
  12. Singapore: 12.2 percent (88.4 percent)
  13. Brunei Darussalam: 12.1 percent (73.7 percent)
  14. Finland: 12.0 percent (98.3 percent)
  15. Netherlands: 11.9 percent (98.4 percent)
  16. Israel: 11.9 percent (80.0 percent)
  17. Canada: 11.9 percent (90.1 percent)
  18. Poland: 11.8 percent (89.4 percent)
  19. Estonia: 11.8 percent (96.0 percent)
  20. Sweden: 11.7 percent (89.4 percent)

Bottom 20 nations:

  1. Somalia: 0.6 percent (3.1 percent)
  2. Malawi: 0.5 percent (2.6 percent)
  3. Mozambique: 0.5 percent (2.5 percent)
  4. Iraq: 0.5 percent (2.5 percent)
  5. Chad: 0.5 percent (2.4 percent)
  6. Mali: 0.4 percent (2.3 percent)
  7. Guinea: 0.4 percent (2.2 percent)
  8. Burundi: 0.4 percent (2.0 percent)
  9. Burkina Faso: 0.4 percent (2.1 percent)
  10. Madagascar: 0.4 percent (1.9 percent)
  11. Cambodia: 0.3 percent (1.6 percent)
  12. Liberia: 0.3 percent (1.6 percent)
  13. Ethiopia: 0.3 percent (1.2 percent)
  14. Central African Rep.: 0.3 percent (1.2 percent)
  15. Eritrea: 0.3 percent (1.3 percent)
  16. Congo (Dem. Rep.): 0.3 percent (1.2 percent)
  17. Niger: 0.2 percent (1.3 percent)
  18. Sierra Leone: 0.2 percent (0.9 percent)
  19. Myanmar: 0.2 percent (0.9 percent)
  20. Timor-Leste: 0.1 percent (0.6 percent)

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Jeanna Bryner
Managing editor, Scientific American

Jeanna Bryner is managing editor of Scientific American. Previously she was editor in chief of Live Science and, prior to that, an editor at Scholastic's Science World magazine. Bryner has an English degree from Salisbury University, a master's degree in biogeochemistry and environmental sciences from the University of Maryland and a graduate science journalism degree from New York University. She has worked as a biologist in Florida, where she monitored wetlands and did field surveys for endangered species, including the gorgeous Florida Scrub Jay. She also received an ocean sciences journalism fellowship from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. She is a firm believer that science is for everyone and that just about everything can be viewed through the lens of science.