On Digital Quality of Life, the US Could Learn a Few Things From Israel, Denmark

Surfshark’s Digital Quality of Life (DQL) Index rating is a good way to track the ups and downs of modern digital life on a country-by-country basis. The company has been publishing the research with pretty much the same methodology and criteria since 2019(Opens in a new window), albeit adding more countries each year. In 2020, we covered it and found the US placed 22nd on the list. Last year, it jumped up to a respectable 5th place.

This year, however, the US took a nosedive. It’s not as bad as it was two years ago, but the US isn’t even in the top 10 anymore. It’s now in 12th place out of 117 countries, so we’re still within the top 10%. Most of the rest of the top 10 are in Europe; that list also includes South Korea (10th), Japan (8th), and in the number-one position this year, Israel. Denmark, which came first in the previous two years, dropped to number two.

The DQI is based on several pillars(Opens in a new window) that Surfshark quantifies into a final index. Each of the five factors has its own score.

The US Ranking in the DQL Index
(Credit: PCMag)

The US ranks number one in the Electronic Government category, which “determines how advanced and digitized are a country’s government services.” It also ranks highly under Internet Quality (coming in at number six) and Electronic Infrastructure (number four).

The other two criteria are Electronic Security and Internet Affordability. The US is weakest in the former, landing at number 39. Greece is the top finisher there.

The pillar of Affordability is the most truly interesting: It gives Israel the edge over everyone because its affordability index is sky high. Note that it also takes mobile data affordability, along with the cost of broadband internet, into account. The US is only 15th for affordability.

The study found that globally, broadband internet is less affordable than it was in 2021. Mobile internet on the whole is more affordable, however. But in the US, mobile internet affordability dropped 18 points, putting the US at 59th place—yet broadband affordability in the US improved.

Interestingly, looking at the global domestic product (GDP) per capita of the areas rated, being in a wealthy area doesn’t guarantee a better digital infrastructure or security. Unless you’re in western Europe.

So, which countries are at the bottom of the list of 117? That would be Congo DR, Yemen, Ethiopia, Mozambique, and Cameroon.

Where does Surfshark get the data and how does it crunch the numbers to get a DQL index? The full methodology is online, but in short, it has 14 factors it considers to get to the five pillars. The study pulls from several data sources, including Portulans Institute, the US State Department, Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés, and Ookla’s Speedtest to name a few. (Note: Ookla is owned by PCMag parent company Ziff Davis.) Surfshark, a maker of VPNs and other security software, is headquartered in Lithuania. It’s now a subsidiary of another VPN maker, Nord Security.  

For a lot more data visit the full 2022 report at Surfshark(Opens in a new window).

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