Canada stands tenth on the list of the world’s most technologically advanced nations, according to IDC’s annual Information Society Index (ISI).
The study examines the current state of adoption and use of IT and how it relates to society. This year, IDC measured 53 countries on variables such as broadband penetration, wireless penetration, total spending on IT as a percentage of the gross domestic product (GDP), civil liberties and e-commerce spending.
In top-ranked Sweden, 69 per cent of the country has access to the Internet, with 15 per cent using broadband. Eighty percent of Sweden’s population subscribes to cellular wireless services and 25 per cent of Web users access the Internet from mobile devices.
The country spends 4.1 per cent of its gross domestic product (GDP) on IT, with 20 per cent of that being spent on software. According to IDC, technologically advanced countries tend to spend more on software while less sophisticated nations are still spending on infrastructure.
It is often assumed that the U.S. is the most advanced society, but Sweden has consistently outranked it for the past several years, said Stephen Minton, director of worldwide IT markets and strategies for IDC.
The top 10 countries ranked according to the ISI, in order, are Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Finland, New Zealand, Switzerland, the U.S, Austria and Canada.
