In a recent Commission on Population and Development debate over technology and development, speakers said countries need stronger investment in digital population systems, research capacity and data infrastructure if they are going to reach people who are already underserved. The discussion also cast digital inclusion as more than infrastructure alone, stressing safety, rights and equal access as more services move online.
Digital Divide pressure is shifting from access to quality
The numbers show why the alarm is growing. In its Facts and Figures 2025 release, the International Telecommunication Union said about 6 billion people are online, but 2.2 billion remain offline and 96% of those disconnected live in low- and middle-income countries. The divide is also becoming more layered: 77% of men are online compared with 71% of women, while internet use stands at 85% in urban areas versus 58% in rural communities.
ITU said affordability remains a major choke point, with broadband still unaffordable in around 60% of low- and middle-income countries. That means the digital divide is no longer defined only by whether a signal exists. It is increasingly about whether families can afford reliable service, whether students can use it for school and whether public systems can safely deliver information and support.
Aid cuts are making the Digital Divide more dangerous
The connectivity gap matters more as education, health information and aid delivery move deeper into digital channels. In its 2026 humanitarian appeal, UNICEF warned that global funding cuts are already limiting its ability to reach millions of children and said a 72% nutrition funding gap in 2025 forced cuts across 20 priority countries. “Severe funding shortfalls are placing UNICEF’s life-saving programs under immense strain,” Executive Director Catherine Russell said. UNICEF also said a US$745 million education shortfall has left millions more children at risk of losing access to learning, protection and stability.
The larger financing backdrop is also deteriorating. The Financing for Sustainable Development Report 2026 said development progress is being hit by global fragmentation and a financing squeeze facing developing countries. For many of those countries, that leaves less room to build broadband networks, connect schools and clinics, strengthen public data systems and keep digital access affordable while also dealing with debt stress, climate shocks and fragile social services.
The Digital Divide has been building for years
The current warnings land in a debate that has been running for more than a decade. The World Bank’s 2016 Digital Dividends report said the benefits of technology were lagging behind the spread of devices and networks, warning that skills, competition and accountable institutions mattered just as much as access. In 2020, a UNICEF-ITU report on internet access at home showed how exposed families were when schools closed during the pandemic, finding that two-thirds of children and young people age 25 or younger lacked internet access at home.
What comes next
The U.N. case for urgent investment is becoming more specific: finance reliable electricity, broadband backbones, affordable devices, digital skills and safer online spaces, while protecting the public data systems governments use to identify need and target support. Without that mix, the digital divide will keep acting less like a technology gap and more like a force multiplier for poverty, exclusion and insecurity.
For vulnerable populations, the stakes are immediate. When aid shrinks and connectivity remains weak, people do not just lose internet access; they lose pathways to school, telehealth, market information, benefits systems and emergency assistance. That is why U.N. agencies are increasingly treating the digital divide as a core development risk rather than a secondary modernization issue.
