Broadband access affords social, educational, and financial advantages. Being online can make it easier to access jobs, bargains, information, and education. But the digital divide can magnify inequality if those who are already deprived are also less likely to be online.
We apply a simple model to visualise the effects of digital connectivity on inequality, across Scotland. If those who are more fortunate than you are also more likely to be online then their digital advantage serves to widen the gap.
For each datazone we consider whether those more fortunate are more or less likely to be online at the given speed threshold, or have better or worse availability, and colour the zone red or green, accordingly. The density of the colour represents the size of the effect.
The numbers are expressed as percentages, and have a simple interpretation.
These effects are aggregated to colour larger areas from other geographies.
The bar chart shows the proportions of the selected area's households online at various speeds, for five levels of deprivation (SIMD quintiles).
You can zoom and pan the map to see more detail, and click on an area to see its detailed statistics. Use the radio buttons to select the geography and speed you wish to see.
Select a geography to look at your chosen level of granularity, then select an uptake or availability threshold to display the effects on inequality of the distributions of connections or availability at your chosen speed.
In each case, the map is coloured to show the net effect for each area is to strengthen (red) or reduce its deprivation relative to those who are less (SIMD) deprived.
Please be patient while new views load. There is a lot of data to download and display.