Global Information Technology Report 2013

Just out, the World Economic Forum's The Global Information Technology Report 2013: Growth and Jobs in a Hyperconnected World.

Since 2002 this annual report has "accompanied and monitored ICT advances over the last decade as well as raising awareness of the importance of ICT diffusion and usage for long-term competitiveness and societal well-being."

The Report includes its much touted and anticipated Networked Readiness Index. More on this from the Executive summary: 

"In terms of the results (see the Networked Readiness Index Rankings provided on page xix), two groups of economies dominate the NRI: Northern European economies and the so-called Asian Tigers. Among the Northern European countries, four out of the five Nordic economies featured in the NRI—Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark (in rank order)—continue to feature in the top 10. Iceland, the last of the Nordics, is not too far behind, at 17th place. The performance of this group in terms of readiness is particularly outstanding. All five Nordics feature in the top 10 of this subindex. Within this subindex, on the infrastructure and digital content pillar, four countries occupy the top
positions. As highlighted in the previous edition and in this Report, the gap between those countries and the ones in the Southern and Eastern parts of Europe is profound. A second group of economies that posts a remarkable performance are the Asian Tigers: Singapore, Taiwan (China), the Republic of Korea, and Hong Kong SAR. All boast outstanding business and innovation environments that are consistently ranked among the most conducive in the world. The Tigers also stand out for their governments’ leadership in promoting the digital agenda, and the impact of ICTs on society tends to be larger in these economies."

This is a huge report, 384 pages worth of detailed country by country data.  The Readiness Index is quite detailed with a variety of factors feeding into the ranking. These include efficiency of legal systems for resolving disputes, intellectual property protection, electricity production, mobile network coverage, cellular and broadband tariffs, quality of math and science education, adult literacy rates, households with personal computers, business to business computer usage and many more. 

Bookmark Alert: NationMaster!

NationMaster, is great way to get comparative country statistics in friendly graph, map, or pie chart (you choose) fashion. It contains a vast compilation of data from such sources as the CIA World Factbook, UN, and OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) . Using the handy search engine query, you can generate maps and graphs on all kinds of statistics with ease. Manager/Developer Luke Metcalfe explains how the site came into being back in 2003. "The idea for NationMaster arose as I was surfing around the CIA World Factbook. It's a great read but I felt the individual figures (like number of TVs, or kilometres of coastline) didn't mean much on their own. They'd be more illuminating if they were placed alongside other countries and shown relative to population." 5,912 stats, 3,728 maps and 6,098 profiles later NationMaster just keeps racking up rave reviews and appearances on countless best-sites lists. Says the New York Times "... an astounding and easy-to-use collection of facts, statistics, charts, maps and trivia on every country in the world."

NationaMaster also features StateMaster which does for states of the United States what NationMaster does for the world.

If you are concerned about authenticity and authorship, all statistics on the site are cited.

You can do key word searches or browse categories that include Media and Internet along with Crime, Disasters, Education, Health, Industry, Labor, Lifestyle, and Religion to name a few. These general categories are further broken down. So under Media you can search Cinema attendance, mobile phones, newspaper circulation, radio use, phone service, and much more. Under Internet you can search broadband access, number of websites, users (per capita), internet charges, and more.

This site is rich and deep and right at your fingertips.