The Digital Gender Divide

From 2018 to 2022, household access to home internet in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) increased from 50.7 to 68.4 percent, with higher access rates in urban areas (ITU, 2023). In most countries of LAC, there are pronounced disparities in access to the internet between poor and non-poor households (World Bank, 2024). There are notable gender disparities too. Men generally have better access to the internet than women, but in some countries a higher percentage of women accesses the internet . The gender gap favoring women (expressed in percentage points) is particularly significant in the Dominican Republic. Similarly, a noticeable gap in favor of women's internet usage can be seen in Nicaragua, Paraguay, and Uruguay