The country is at the top of the continent in Surfshark's index and stands out among the nations with "amazing" performance.
Thanks to its firm commitment to innovation and technology, Uruguay is once again in the news in the world and is positioned as the Latin American leader in quality of digital life. This recognition is added to its outstanding performance in digital government, where it stands out for its widespread citizen participation and its open government policy, as well as being the first Latin American nation to join D9 (today “Digital Nations”), a select group that brings together to the most developed nations in the field.
The country ranks first in Latin America in the 2020 Digital Quality of Life Index (DQL) prepared by Surfshark, a recognized international company dedicated to cybersecurity. Worldwide, it ranks 36th with a score of 0.59 / 1.00 and stands out among the group of “surprising” countries, which exceed expectations of digital well-being according to their GDP per capita.
The ranking weights five pillars that determine the quality of digital life: internet access, which refers to how expensive the connection is, internet quality, which responds to the speed and stability of the connection, digital infrastructure, which considers its level of development and inclusion of citizens, digital government, which addresses the degree of development of the digitization of State services, and digital security, which assesses how prepared a country is to face cybercrime and its commitment to protecting the privacy of users.
Uruguay obtains the best results in digital government in the region, ranking 29th worldwide, 32nd position in electronic infrastructure and 34th in digital security. Regarding its global score, it is positioned third in the Americas, only surpassed by the United States and Canada, in a ranking that evaluates 85 countries and encompasses 81% of the world's population.
The South American nation is a member of the group of “surprising” countries, which outperform countries with a higher level of wealth in their digital well-being. In this sense, the Surfshark report points out that "although per capita GDP has a strong correlation with digital well-being, there are countries that exceed the expected quality" according to this indicator.
“Security, infrastructure and digital government have a greater impact on digital well-being than GDP per capita. This proves that it is possible to improve the quality of digital life with fewer resources, following a focused strategic plan ”, the report emphasizes.
Due to its advanced technological infrastructure and strong commitment to inclusion, Uruguay is the Latin American country of reference in digital well-being. It has the highest level of broadband Internet penetration on the continent and the highest percentage of companies and homes connected by fiber optics.
To this is added its determined commitment to electronic transformation, which made it the most advanced country in digital procedures in the region, according to the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). Some notable initiatives are the Uruguay Digital 2020 Agenda, which aims to achieve 100% of online procedures by 2020, the Salud.Uy Program and the National Electronic Medical Record, which are aimed at improving the quality and continuity of care for patients. citizens through technology.
More than 400 ICT companies have chosen it as their base of operations for the region and the world. Due to its modern technological ecosystem, highly competitive talent and a solid government commitment, Uruguay is synonymous with well-being and digital security, and an exceptional destination to invest, as well as to work and live.
