Country context
- Brazil is 84th on the world ranking list of human development (Source: ) with a Gini of 52.0 (Source: ).
- São Paulo's metropolitan region is among the 33 megacities of the world, having, in 2018, the 4th largest population (Source: ).
- In 2023, the number of internet users in Brazil reached approximately 156 million, representing 84% of the population 10 years old or older. Of these, virtually all users (96%) accessed the Internet on mobile phones, and 30% accessed the Internet only through these devices (Source: ).
- The percentage of internet users in Brazil saw a dramatic increase, from 70% in 2018 to 84% in 2023. This increase was particularly evident in Brazil's rural population, which saw a 29% increase in internet users, from 49% to 78% (Source: ).
- Despite this increase, socioeconomic inequalities were prevalent. The most prominent reason for not having an internet connection was cost-related (55%), and only a quarter of class DE (22%) reported purchasing goods and services online, compared to their class A counterparts (86%) (Source: ).
- Brazil has longstanding programs promoting the use of ICT in education, such as Proinfo, created in 1997. Although policies have improved connectivity among public schools, they are stilll lacking in terms of pedagogical use of ICTs, availability of online content and teacher training (Source: ).
DiSTO Brazil
In Brazil, the DiSTO project focuses on the production of heatmaps.
Mapping digital and social inequalities in Brazil
The project's main objective is to map social and digital exclusion in the city of São Paulo. Researchers used sample surveys from official datasets, including Cetic.br/NIC.br, to develop country-specific measures. This was based on the framework developed by the “Exclusion in a Digital Britain Heatmap project”.
The mapping is achieved via:
- The development of area-level metrics using existing databases to cover a lower level of disaggregation;
- The edition of a publication (printed and online), aimed at policy-makers and researchers, that discusses the unequal appropriation of ICTs within metropolitan regions, focusing on the trajectory of social and digital inequalities in São Paulo; and
- The use of new sources of data (big data), such as connectivity tests, to develop alternative metrics to better estimate the access and use of ICTs at the local level.
Researchers: Fabio Senne, Stefania Lapolla Cantoni, Graziela Castello
Partners: Cetic.br (Regional Center on the Development of the Information Society)/NIC.br (Brazilian Network Information Center); CEBRAP (Brazilian Center of Analysis and Planning)