[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"question:60:en-US":3},{"metadata":4,"sys":15,"fields":35},{"tags":5,"concepts":14},[6,11],{"sys":7},{"type":8,"linkType":9,"id":10},"Link","Tag","global",{"sys":12},{"type":8,"linkType":9,"id":13},"industry",[],{"space":16,"id":20,"type":21,"createdAt":22,"updatedAt":23,"environment":24,"publishedVersion":28,"revision":29,"contentType":30,"locale":34},{"sys":17},{"type":8,"linkType":18,"id":19},"Space","ghhpjogyw4x7","d712f4676f97e92969ad44e3ad86e7c8","Entry","2021-11-11T07:08:22.500Z","2024-06-12T17:21:23.605Z",{"sys":25},{"id":26,"type":8,"linkType":27},"master","Environment",99,25,{"sys":31},{"type":8,"linkType":32,"id":33},"ContentType","question","en-US",{"globalId":36,"answers":37,"answersAsImages":58,"wrongPercentage":96,"name":97,"questionText":98,"statistics":99,"veryWrongStatistics":101,"correctSentence":103,"youWereWrong":104,"youWereRight":105,"dataSourceShortText":106,"dataSourceLinkLongText":107,"extendedAnswerText":108,"headingVeryWrong":109,"youWereVeryWrong":110,"headingWrong":109},"60",[38,60,79],{"metadata":39,"sys":42,"fields":55},{"tags":40,"concepts":41},[],[],{"space":43,"id":45,"type":21,"createdAt":46,"updatedAt":47,"environment":48,"publishedVersion":50,"revision":51,"contentType":52,"locale":34},{"sys":44},{"type":8,"linkType":18,"id":19},"d1c2dbb3f645bcf042991c26808840a6","2021-11-11T06:54:18.946Z","2025-08-11T08:14:22.857Z",{"sys":49},{"id":26,"type":8,"linkType":27},22,14,{"sys":53},{"type":8,"linkType":32,"id":54},"answer",{"globalId":56,"correctAnswer":57,"isVeryWrong":58,"answerText":59},"60-a1",true,false,"Around 80%",{"metadata":61,"sys":64,"fields":76},{"tags":62,"concepts":63},[],[],{"space":65,"id":67,"type":21,"createdAt":68,"updatedAt":69,"environment":70,"publishedVersion":72,"revision":73,"contentType":74,"locale":34},{"sys":66},{"type":8,"linkType":18,"id":19},"1897ab32edb2d2e1492649061d053588","2021-11-11T06:54:20.784Z","2024-06-12T16:12:17.384Z",{"sys":71},{"id":26,"type":8,"linkType":27},21,13,{"sys":75},{"type":8,"linkType":32,"id":54},{"globalId":77,"correctAnswer":58,"isVeryWrong":58,"answerText":78},"60-a2","Around 85%",{"metadata":80,"sys":83,"fields":93},{"tags":81,"concepts":82},[],[],{"space":84,"id":86,"type":21,"createdAt":87,"updatedAt":88,"environment":89,"publishedVersion":50,"revision":51,"contentType":91,"locale":34},{"sys":85},{"type":8,"linkType":18,"id":19},"4f950414d02bd4ce958a54ee15bd89d1","2021-11-11T06:54:22.410Z","2025-08-11T08:14:52.759Z",{"sys":90},{"id":26,"type":8,"linkType":27},{"sys":92},{"type":8,"linkType":32,"id":54},{"globalId":94,"correctAnswer":58,"isVeryWrong":57,"answerText":95},"60-a3","Around 90%",66,"\nHow many people in the world have a mobile phone ","\nHow many people in the world have a mobile phone subscription?\n",[100],"uk 0.66",[102],"uk 0.50","Worldwide, around to 78% of people have a mobile phone subscription.","When a new technology spreads fast, a lot of people overestimate how many can afford it, like you just did with mobile phones.","When a new technology spreads fast, many overestimate how common it is.","Source: ITU, GSMA & After Access","We used multiple different sources to come up with the answer of “around 78%”. That's the number provided by ITU[5] for mobile phone \"ownership\", which is higher than the estimates from the other sources. The source GSMA Intelligence[1] puts the figure for subscriber penetration at 69% in 2023. We cross-referenced that data with numbers from After Access[2], which put mobile ownership slightly higher in some African countries. That is why we chose the correct answer we did, which - despite those differences - is more correct than the other two answer options.\n\n[1]  [GSMA Intelligence - The Mobile Economy 2024](https:\u002F\u002Fwww.gsma.com\u002Fsolutions-and-impact\u002Fconnectivity-for-good\u002Fmobile-economy\u002Fwp-content\u002Fuploads\u002F2024\u002F02\u002F260224-The-Mobile-Economy-2024.pdf)  \n[2]  [After Access - The Inside Internet Story of Africa, Asia and Latin America](https:\u002F\u002Fafteraccess.net\u002Fwp-content\u002Fuploads\u002FAfter-Access-Website-layout-r1.pdf)  \n[3]  [“Mobile phones the pathway to internet in Africa” - Article from May 2015 in the Conversation by Indra de Lanerolle](https:\u002F\u002Ftheconversation.com\u002Fmobile-phones-the-pathway-to-internet-in-africa-42363)  \n[4]  [“Mobile phones are not always a cure for poverty in remote regions” - Article from March 2017 in the Conversation by Petr Matous](https:\u002F\u002Ftheconversation.com\u002Fmobile-phones-are-not-always-a-cure-for-poverty-in-remote-regions-73901)\n[5] [ITU Facts and Figures 2023](https:\u002F\u002Fwww.itu.int\u002Fitu-d\u002Freports\u002Fstatistics\u002F2023\u002F10\u002F10\u002Fff23-mobile-phone-ownership\u002F)\n","Like most new technology, mobile phones are often portrayed as the magic wand that will solve more problems than they actually do. As soon as the poorest can afford it, a mobile phone is typically the first modern technology they will buy, but one third of the world’s population still have more important things to spend their scarce resources on, like food, water and housing.\n\n### Why is it a problem that people are wrong about this?\nShould I buy a phone or food? That’s a question you have probably never had to ask yourself, thankfully. But that's the reality for one third of humanity and, of course, they choose food over a phone. When we ask people what share of the world’s population don’t have enough food and compare their answers to this question, we can see that they think more of the world’s people are going hungry than have phones. That is not the case.\n\n### Why are people wrong about this?\nEven if people are poor, we have heard that they very often have a phone. But that poverty is different from extreme poverty. The poor in rich countries can afford phones, because they are actually richer than the poorest third of humanity. It is easy to overestimate phone owners if you have never met anyone without a phone.\n\n### What kind of phones do the poorest have?\nYou can see hundreds of actual phone users on different incomes in our tool called [Dollar Street](https:\u002F\u002Fwww.gapminder.org\u002Fdollar-street\u002F?topic=phones&max=140).\n\n![Screenshot 2021-01-18 at 11.19.53](\u002F\u002Fimages.ctfassets.net\u002Fghhpjogyw4x7\u002F3k45F1Mmm0gKSH5dR51inV\u002Fe871dfbff7689e6a018ca0b7806f42f5\u002FScreenshot_2021-01-18_at_11.19.53.png)\n\nWhen we picture mobile phones nowadays, most of us think of bright colors, big screens and devices that you can use to stream movies and video chat with friends. But using phones the way we might in high- and middle-income countries is expensive. A majority of poorer people instead have simpler phones that they use to text and call, rather than stream and access social media.\n\n### Are mobile phones lifting people out of extreme poverty?\nMost people in the world who have their basic needs met and can read and write benefit enormously from having a mobile phone to find jobs and customers. That insight often makes people exaggerate the benefit of mobile phones to people on lower income levels. But people who can’t read will not benefit from a texting app and there are still around 20% of people who can’t read. The 10% of people with NO access to electricity couldn’t charge their phones. \nFor a phone to be worth the investment, there needs to be a distance to other people you want to have contact with, but that is not the case for many people who live local lives and can’t afford to travel. The idea that farmers can find their markets by using a phone, assumes they would then have resources to travel to the best market but, in that equation, the cost of traveling is usually more expensive than calling or texting. \n\n### Can I trust the data?\nYes. We have checked five different sources and the answer “around 78%” represents the higher estimate. The number is not precise. For 2023, ITU put the estimate at 78% (for mobile phone ownership) while the second source, GSMA, put the figure for \"subscriber penetration\" at 69%. We cross-referenced that data with numbers from other sources, like one called After Access, which put mobile ownership slightly higher in some African countries in 2018, compared to GSMA. That is how we chose the correct answer we did, which - despite those uncertainties - we believe is \"more correct\" than the other two answer options.\n","Mobiles are cheap, not free","It’s common to overestimate how fast new technology spreads, like you just did. One third of people have more important things to buy."]