Both China and India have booming information technology industries and claim some of the highest-rates of growth in Internet access. But in important ways, the information society in these large countries is highly concentrated around large, coastal cities.

In important ways, the booming economies of China and India are thriving because of information technologies that both improve efficiency in many economic sectors and improve communication between people. But just as importantly, information technologies are unevenly distributed within these countries.1

While data on the overall growth of China’s Internet use is impressive, it is important to plumb the data for differences around the country. Between 2000 and 2005 Beijing lost its spot as the district with the largest portion of Internet users. Although it makes sense that Internet access in China’s largest cities and coastal areas will be better than access in more rural provinces, the country has made significant progress in making Internet access equitably distributed across the country.2

One of the most common ways of measuring how a resource is distributed among a population is through GINI coefficients. In a perfectly equal society, 23 percent of the population has 23 percent of the resources, 90 percent of the population has 90 percent of the resources. A more equal society will have a low GINI coefficient, and a society in which resources are highly concentrated will have a high GINI coefficient. In 2000, the GINI coefficient for Internet access across the 32 provinces was 0.59, but by 2005 this value had dropped to 0.42.3

Data on India’s states was difficult to come by, but in 2000, India’s major cities accounted for a significant portion of that country’s online population.4Â In 2000, 60 percent of India’s Internet users were living in one of India’s 10 largest cities. Among India’s most wired cities, there are still important differences in technology infrastructuring. Even acknowledging that Internet access is a relatively low development priority for many cities in India, there is a striking difference between the level of Internet use in cities such as Madras (30 internet users per 1,000 dwellers) and Calcutta (six internet users per 1,000).

  1. Download WIA Spreadsheet Internet Access Within China and India. [back]
  2. In addition to computers, 3.5 million people use technologies such as mobile phones to access the internet. [back]
  3. Staff calculations for China based on data from:Â China Internet Network Information Center. (2005). 15th Statistical Survey Report on the Internet Development in China: http://www.cnnic.net.cn/en/index/index.htm. [back]
  4. Staff calculations for India based on data from:Â Rightserve.com. (2000). Indian Readership Survey: http://www.bangalorenet.com/internetindia/index.htm. [back]