Which nation in North Africa and the Middle East is top for digital?

Apr 15, 2015

Thierry Geiger

The United Arab Emirates is top for digital in the North Africa and Middle East region, according to the latest Networked Readiness Index (NRI) from the World Economic Forum. The UAE comes second of the 143 countries surveyed in three key areas — the business and innovation environment, government usage, and social impact.

The NRI is part of the World Economic Forum’s Global Information Technology Report 2015: ICTs for Inclusive Growth and scores nations on four counts of their readiness to exploit new digital technologies: 1) the regulatory and business environment, 2) infrastructure, affordability, and skills, 3) usage by businesses, individuals and government, and 4) social and economic impact.

Here are the top 10 digital nations in the Middle East and North Africa:

See also the Global Top 10 and league tables for Europe, sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and Asia.

Explore the networked readiness heatmap below.

Author: Thierry Geiger, Associate Director, Economist, Global Benchmarking Network, Global Competitiveness and Risk, World Economic Forum

Image; Emirati women use their mobiles to photograph a fireworks display in Dubai. REUTERS/Ahmed Jadallah

Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.