In a time defined by the advent of artificial intelligence and hyper-connectivity, a shocking recent report from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) shows us that the world’s “digital divide” is by no means closed. An estimated 2.2 billion people worldwide about 26 per cent of the world’s population have no internet access as of February 2026. Though better than previous years, the economic results of this exclusion are staggering, as the "cost of inaction" is costing the world trillions of dollars in the global GDP.
The human scale: which community are left behind?
Almost three quarters of the world is online nowadays, says Facts and Figures 2025/26, and yet progress is being made slower than it had been. The “unconnected” are not evenly distributed; 96% of those offline dwell in countries of low and middle income. Gender and geography only fragment the divide more.
Worldwide, men are much more likely than women to be online, and there remains a huge urban-rural divide: in low-income countries the percentage of rural people who have internet access is 14%, compared to over triple that rate in urban centers.
The Economic Toll in Trillion Dollars
The absence of connectivity is not only a social issue; it is a massive economic drag. According to GSMA and the Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI), bringing the remaining unconnected members of the global population online may add an extra $3.5 trillion to total GDP by 2030. The “costs of exclusion” are in lost productivity, lost tax revenue, and stunted innovation.
Closing just the gender digital divide would, for example, increase global GDP by $1.5 trillion. UNESCO’s latest report, ’Price of Inaction’, goes even further, indicating that if the education-digital divide is not closed, the global economy might lose as much as $10 trillion each year by 2030 as a result of lost economic growth due to a workforce that lacks foundational digital skills.
The Cost of Connection: $2.8 Trillion Challenge
To get the world to “universal and meaningful connectivity,” as the United Nations Development Programme calls it access of “high quality, affordable and secure services to all or for all,” the cost of the investment is staggering. The ITU calculates that the figure is expected to be between $2.6 trillion and $2.8 trillion to close the gap by 2030. This funding is needed for:
- Infrastructure ($1.6 Trillion): Building fiber networks, 5G towers and even satellite broadband to far-flung areas.
- Affordability ($983 Billion): Dropping the cost of entry-level smartphones and data plans, which currently consume more than half of the world’s poorest 20% of monthly income.
- Digital Skills ($152 Billion): Training people to effectively use digital tools in education as well as employment.
At the end of the World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC-25) in Baku, it was stated that connectivity is no longer a luxury but a fundamental prerequisite for inclusive growth for all of the global leaders. Without a coherent “Marshall Plan” for the digital era, the world risks permanent “two-tier” economies in which billions are locked out of the future.
