Human Development Report 1999

["Kate Raworth" <kate.raworth@undp.org>]

United Nations Development Programme has launched the Human Development
Report 1999 on Globalisation today, 12th July.

A highlight of the Report is a chapter focused on globalisation and the
new technologies - especially the internet. It is full of data, analysis
and policy suggestions for how access to the internet could  be better
spread to developing countries and to marginalised people everywhere.

Did you know...

only the top 2% of the world's people have access to the internet - and
over half of them live in the US
one in three internet users has at least one university degree.
80% of websites are in English yet only one in ten people worldwide
speaks the language.
99% of IT spending is concentrated in just 55 countries.
There are more internet hosts in Bulgaria than there are in Sub Saharan
Africa
In South East Asia, with almost 9% of the world's population, less than
0.5% of people are internet users.
A bit tax of one US cent on every 100 emails would have raised US$ 70
billion in 1996 - and this could have helped to make the internet truly
global.

For further information, see www.undp.org/hdro

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Kate Raworth
Economist
Human Development Report Office
UNDP

email  kate.raworth@undp.org
tel  212 906 3668
fax  212 906 3677
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