Internet Usage in Haiti

As mentioned before, Haiti's media is still in its developing stage due to the oppression of journalist and the  underdevelopment of technology. Although their media isn't as developed as the United State's media, there is still some media activity that is quite beneficial to the citizens. Today we'll focus in the internet and its usage amongst Haitians.

According to the CIA World Factbook, only 10 percent of Haiti's 9,719,932 people have access to the worldwide internet. This equals about one million users and puts Haiti at number 99 on the world's list of internet users by country. Haiti's low percentage of internet users is due largely to the underdevelopment of its technology and infrastructure. Haiti is said to be the least developed country in the Western Hemisphere.

Although Haiti's internet usage is low, Haiti is in the lead when it comes to the growth of internet users in the Caribbean community. According to a report by Exito Exportador, Haiti has seen the largest growth of internet users within the past ten years.

This growth is most likely going to be halted due to the damaging earthquake that took place in January 2010. The quake severely damaged Haiti's infrastructure which deeply affected its internet access. A study done by Mozilla Firefox shows the damage the earthquake caused and how it affected internet usage in Haiti. Below is a time line documenting the amount of internet usage before and after the earthquake.

Haiti currently only has 273 internet hosts (ranks 185 in the world) and unlike the US', its internet country code is .ht.

While Haiti's internet is in trouble, it seems that its mobile cell phone services are expanding due to the low cost of GSM phones. In 2009 there were 3.648 million people with cell phones, according to the CIA World Factbook. But, while the cell phone services seem to be expanding, Haiti's telecommunication infrastructure is still amongst the least developed in Latin America.

Hopefully President Martelly can come up with a way to improve Haiti's infrastructure.

Internet Usage in the World