Digital Inequality and Efforts to Bridge the Global Digital Divide

Research investigates the multifaceted digital divide issue and different actions taken to close the gap globally. We take a mixed-methods strategy, studying quantitative data for 195 countries spanning 2010-2023 and qualitative results from case studies and interviews with experts. This study investigated the multifaceted nature of digital inequality, its underlying causes, and potential solutions. In this context, the study design combines descriptive statistics, a number of multiple linear regressions, a difference-in-differences analysis, and time series forecasting. The findings show that there are striking disparities in internet penetration rates across regions and classes of incomes. Digital access is highly related to economic factors such as GDP per capita and education. Policy interventions, like national broadband plans, reduce digital inequality. Our findings confirm the challenges of global digital equity, depicting that the biggest margins of improvement yet remain for Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. The paper further addresses multicollinearity, heteroscedasticity, and endogeneity in econometric exercises to secure its results on strong grounds. The in-depth analysis further adds to the existing literature regarding digital inclusion with enlightening results for the researchers and policymakers. Since technological changes are continuous in nature, digital divide remains crucial for social development along with economic growth in recent years.