Center for Social Policies launches the research Map of Digital Inclusion

The Center for Social Policies (CPS) disclosed on Wednesday, May 16, during a press meeting at the Barão de Itambi street's building, the research ?Map of Digital Inclusion? ? made in a partnership with Fundação Telefônica. The work is the first of a series of studies on digital inclusion and mapping of several ways of access to digital technology in Brazil, produced based on microdata from the new IBGE's Brazilian census and other 150 countries. The research, launched 10 years after ?Map of Digital Inclusion?, assesses the quality of access, its uses and returns, from a perspective of integrated operation that will make it possible to improve the population's social welfare in a sustainable fashion and that will be a subsidy for monitoring the indicators that comprise the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. ?Brazil is the mirror of digital inclusion/exclusion of the world?, said the chief economist of the Center, MarceloNeri, upon remarking that the percentage of domiciles with access to the network in Brazil is similar to the world's rate of 33%.The study answers questions on the progression of digital inclusion/exclusion in the country, how Brazilians access the Internet, most used locations and the factors that are determinant to the exclusion of Internet access from part of the population. Taking that in consideration, digital inclusion goals and policies are created. Upon analyzing the reasons for such exclusion, we notice that public policies must first focus on digital education, since access cost and difficulty are not the main obstacles for Internet access in Brazil, according to the economist. The data presented by the study also shows that Brazil is the 63rd among the 154 countries mapped by FGV, following Greece, Russia and Argentina. The municipality São Caetano, in São Paulo state, has the highest Internet home access rate in the country (69%), while in Aroeiras, Piauí state, this rate is zero.In Rio de Janeiro, the access percentage is equal to Iceland's, where 94% of domiciles are connected to the Internet, and the Rio das Pedras favela ? lowest rate of the city, which corresponds to 21% ? is similar to Panama's. As for the Sernambetiba avenue, in Barra da Tijuca neighborhood, we find the highest rate of domiciles with Internet access within the municipality, with rates that can be compared to Nordic countries, leaders of the world ranking. ?Recollecting the writer Zuenir Ventura, we are in the parted digital city?, analyzes Neri. The research ?Map of Digital Inclusion? is available at www.fgv.br/cps/telefonica. At the address is also possible to find a simulator that crosses multiple research data, such as social class, sex and municipality. * in the picture, Marcelo Neri and Luciene Dias, representative of Fundação Telefônica