Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 2.12 Map of U.S. broadband Internet usage rates, 2010. Source Author, using data from
residents in cities with more than 100,000 residents have access to DSL, very few
in towns with less than 10,000 people do so.
Canada also faces a digital divide (Sciadas
2002
; Howard et al.
2010
), with, for
example, markedly lower rates of use in Atlantic Canada, which tends to be
poorer, more rural, and demographically older than the rest of the country. Unlike
the U.S., however, the Canadian government has aggressively promoted broad-
band services in rural areas and free internet access in public libraries and com-
munity centers.
2.4.2 Europe
Europe provides a panoply of internet use that ranges from the exceptionally high
to the very low. In 2011, 345 million netizens lived in the continent (excluding
Russia), with an average penetration rate of 73 %. However, rates of usage varied
widely, and were typically much higher in Northern and Western Europe than in
the eastern and southern parts, reflecting long-standing socioeconomic differen-
tials. There is thus a significant digital divide among, as well as within, European
countries (Demoussis and Giannakopoulos
2006
). Indeed, Orviska and Hudson
(
2009
) argue that internal variations in internet usage exceed those among coun-
tries. While income is important in explaining internet access and use, age seems
to be a major variable everywhere, as the young are invariably the most likely to
log into cyberspace (Brandtzæg et al.
2011
).
