Measuring the global web: which country comes out top?

It seems that Sir Tim Berners-Lee has just quantified the web. While the idea of developing a system to measure the value and impact of the great WWW would appear to be equal parts awe-inspiring and difficult to most people, its father (and the World Wide Web Foundation) has risen to the challenge and released the first ever global web index.

What exactly is the web index? Well, it’s huge (and almost entirely funded by Google). The index is a measure of the web’s social, political and economic impact and an assessment of the level connectivity and infrastructure in place in 61 countries around the world. It’s a new annual scale that takes into account everything from a country’s institutional environments (laws governing the web and the level of state censorship) to the actual amount of current web users. Over time, its creators hope it will become the new benchmark — a way to evaluate the performance of different countries and compare them on an even scale.

Its creators admit that the scope of the index was limited by the amount of data; countries that had more information available were more likely to be included. Gaps in knowledge were filled with surveys and input from experts in the various regions.

So which countries have made the top 10?

1. Sweden
2. United States of America
3. United Kingdom
4. Canada
5. Finland
6. Switzerland
7. New Zealand
8. Australia
9. Norway
10. Ireland

Some of the main emerging markets feature in the top 40, with Brazil securing the highest spot among them:

• Brazil: 24
• Russian Federation: 31
• India: 33
• China: 29
• South Africa: 36

At the bottom end of the spectrum, four of the last five countries on the list (Ethiopia, Benin, Burkina Faso and Zimbabwe) are African. Wondering which nation one came in last place? That would be Yemen.