Ease of movement
Transport links, tourism rates and rail infrastructure and road quality can all contribute to the ease of movement within a country – so, which nations are the most connected in terms of travel?
The countries that ranked in the top three for this category are the USA, France and Spain. The USA scored a weighty 35.2 points in total for the category, predominantly due to the high volume of people travelling by airplane – such a high volume, in fact, that it was awarded a maximum score of 10 for this sub-category. Tourism is also thriving in the country, earning it a mark of 8.9 in this field.
Looking at France and Spain, tourism is the main contributor to their high rankings, with the countries receiving a score of 10 and 9.4 respectively.
Access to information
How does each country fare in terms of access to information? Is it possible to access the internet with ease and speed; to easily get electricity in homes?
The top three in this classification are the USA, South Korea and Switzerland. The USA landed the top spot with a total of 22.5 points. This was, in the main part, thanks to the number of internet hosts based in the country – a whopping 505 million internet hosts mean the USA are awarded a 10 in this sub-category. In contrast, though, they only received a score of 1.6 for 5G availability.
South Korea and Switzerland, on the other hand, scored 0 for the number of internet hosts in each country, yet scored an above-average 7.8 (South Korea) and 10 (Switzerland) for 5G availability. South Korea also boasts the fastest mobile speeds of all countries measured, clocking in at 90 Mbps on average.
Global connectivity
Which countries are the best connected to the rest of the world? Do some nations welcome an exceptional number of immigrants? Which country has the most powerful passport?
Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates and Norway all ranked in the top three for global connectivity. According to the data, the residents of Switzerland fare the best in terms of share of GDP per capita, receiving a top score of 10. They also scored highly (9.8) for the power of their passport, having access to the highest number of destinations without needing to arrange a visa prior to travel.
Norway also scored well for their passport power (9.7) and share of GDP per capita (9.7). And finally, the United Arab Emirates gained its place in the top 3 thanks to the high number of immigrants living there, receiving a score of 10 in this sub-category.
Social connectivity
Who takes the trophy for being the most socially connected nation? Considering the residents’ access to basic education, the ethnic diversity of the country, the marriage rate and social media usage, the top three spots were awarded to the United Arab Emirates, the USA and China.
The residents of the United Arab Emirates are prolific on social platforms, obtaining a top score of 10 for the number of social media users. China, on the other hand, has the highest marriage rate, securing it a score of 10 in this area. While the USA fell short of average in terms of access to primary education, with a score of 4.4, they did score above average for ethnic diversity, marriage rates and number of social media users, resulting in a lofty total score of 25 for social connectivity.
This index was created to measure how countries differ when it comes to the various factors that contribute to a connected country – movement (transport, tourism, travel infrastructure, etc.), information (internet speeds, electricity, etc.), global (trade, immigration, passport power, etc.) and social (access to education, ethnic diversity, marriage rates and social media usage).
Countries were chosen based on their 5G connectivity levels, using the Ookla 5G map created by speedtest.net. They were selected if they had one or more 5G deployments and if they had 5G connectivity in the pre-release stage. All data was collected in July 2019.
To make a comparable quantification of how connected each country is, we formulated a ranking system that awarded each country a score from 1-10 based on how connected they are in various areas. A low score indicated that that country is not very well connected in the specified area, with each increasing number indicating a higher level of connectivity. Each country was awarded a score for each of the sub-categories measured (within movement, information, global and social), as well as an overall score that accounts for all factors combined. We were only able to give a score to countries where data was available. If there was no data available for a country, we awarded it a score of 0 for that sub-category.
Each score was obtained using the raw data via this formula:
Score(i) = 10 * ( ( (x(i) - x(min) ) / ( (x(max) - x(min) ) )
A final score was calculated based on a total sum of the points awarded for each category:
Final Score = movement + information + global + social
- Number of air passengers, number of tourists, electricity production, balance of trade, number of immigrants – sourced from UNData (http://data.un.org/)
- Rail infrastructure quality and road quality – sourced from The Global Economy (https://www.theglobaleconomy.com)
- Number of 5G deployments, mobile speeds – sourced from Ookla® Speed Test (https://www.speedtest.net/)
- Internet hosts – sourced from The World Factbook (https://www.cia.gov)
- Passport power - sourced from Henley Passport Index (https://www.henleypassportindex.com/assets/2019/Q3/HPI%20Report%20190701.pdf)
- Share of GDP per capita – sourced from International Monetary Fund (https://www.imf.org/external/datamapper/datasets/WEO/1)
- Access to primary education – sourced from The World Bank (https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.PRM.ENRR)
- Ethnic diversity – sourced from Harvard (https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.PRM.ENRR)
- Marriage rates – sourced from OECD (http://www.oecd.org/els/family/database.htm)
- Number of social media users – sourced from Statista (https://www.statista.com/)