How Many People Actually Own A Cellphone? New Study Reveals Which Countries Have The Least Access

Though it seems like everyone has a cellphone, there still are large segments of people in emerging economies without any access or just limited access, a study by the Pew Research Center indicates.

The Pew study, released Wednesday, surveyed 11 emerging economies. It found a median 6% of adults in those areas do not use phones at all and 7% don’t own phones but borrow them from others.

Venezuela (32%), India (30%) and the Philippines (27%) had the biggest chunks of population without or with just limited access to mobile devices.

Nearly half (46%) of those surveyed said they have trouble getting reliable connections, 37% said they have trouble paying for their phones and 33% said they have trouble charging their phones. Forty-two percent said they often avoid doing certain tasks on their phones because of data usage.

The problems were particularly acute in Lebanon, Tunisia and Jordan, followed by Philippines, Venezuela and Colombia. In Lebanon, 77% said they had trouble getting a signal, 66% avoided doing data-hungry tasks, 43% had trouble paying for their phones and 39% had trouble finding somewhere to charge their batteries. That compares with Mexico, which had the best results, where 35% reported trouble getting a signal, 40% avoided data-hungry tasks, 27% had trouble paying for their phones and 28% had trouble finding a place to charge their phones’ batteries.

Kenya respondents expressed the most difficulty in paying for phones (74%).

Phone users expressed concerns about identity theft, with the most fearful users in Mexico (95%), Colombia (94%), Tunisia (90%), South Africa (89%) and the Philippines (89%). Elsewhere, except in India and Lebanon, at least half of users expressed concern.

Among nonusers, 43% said smartphones are just too complicated, 31% said they’re not literate enough to use one and 43% said they don’t need a cellphone, especially if they can use someone else’s.

Still, nonusers can be envious. The study indicated 86% of nonusers in Venezuela expressed an interest having a cellphone compared with only 9% of those in Lebanon.

The study queried 28,122 adults in Colombia, India, Jordon, Kenya, Lebanon, Mexico, Philippines, South Africa, Tunisia, Venezuela and Vietnam from Sept. 7 to Dec. 7, 2018.

The Global System Mobile Association estimates there are 9.32 billion mobile devices in the world, nearly 2 billion more than the number of people on the planet. China has the most cellphones (1.3 billion), followed by India (1.17 billion) and the United States (327 million).