SL shifts to digital literacy as smartphone usage grows

• Digital literacy outstripping computer literacy across entire population 

• Household computers most available in Western Province, least in Uva

More than one out of every five households in Sri Lanka owns a computer or laptop, the latest computer literacy statistics released by the Census and Statistics Department said yesterday, but it also showed that digital literacy is outstripping computer literacy as smartphone usage grows in the country.  

In the 1st half of 2018, at least one computer was available in 22.9% of households in the country. That is more than one out of every five households owns either a desktop or a laptop computer. This percentage is 39.5% in the Urban sector. The Rural and Estate sectors show 20.3% and 4.9% respectively. The highest availability is in the Western Province (33.4%) while the lowest availability is reported from the Uva Province (10.7%).

“When digital literacy is considered two out of every five (aged five to 69) has digital literacy. Digital literacy is higher than computer literacy for all disaggregated levels, showing the drift from personal computers to smartphones/tablets,” the report released by the department said.  

Overall computer literacy reported in the 1st half of 2018 for Sri Lanka is 27.5%. The survey results show a decrease of 0.8% from 2017 (1st half) to 2018 (1st half).  The Urban sector shows the highest computer literacy rate (38.4%) among residential sectors. Computer literacy rate for Rural and Estate sectors are 25.9% and 11.1% respectively. 

Among the provinces the highest level of computer literacy is reported from the Western Province (36.1%) while the lowest percentage is reported from the Eastern Province. Computer literacy rate among districts show variations ranging from 8.6% (Kilinochchi) to 42.6% (Colombo) and shows the still-prevailing digital divide. 

Computer literacy among males (29.7%) was higher than that of females (25.4%) in the 1st half of 2017. Youth (aged 15-19 years) show the highest computer literacy rate (56.6%) among all other age groups. Age 60 years and above groups show low computer literacy rates.

The survey results reveal the higher the level of education the higher the computer literacy level. The group with A/L or above level of education shows the highest computer literacy rate (70.2%). Also computer literacy is higher among those who are literate in the English language (67.6%).

Computer literacy among the employed population in Sri Lanka is around 61.7% in the 1st half of 2018 and the positions such as managers, senior officials and legislators (67.6%), professionals (85.8%), technical and associate professionals (83.3%) and clerks and clerical support workers (89.4%) have higher computer literacy rates. Also, even among the individuals engaged in elementary occupations 25.3% are computer literate.

Among the unemployed, aged (25-29) group shows highest computer literate population (74.0%). The survey results reveal that among unemployed, many of them have at least some ICT skills. 

Of the population aged five to 69 years, 21.3% used the internet facility at least once during the last 12 months. The survey results further reveal that the Urban sector, where the facilities are largely available, shows the highest usage of both e-mail and internet compared to the other two sectors. Persons in the age group 20-24 indicate a higher internet and email usage compared to the persons in other age groups. 

Different patterns of internet usage can be observed among districts. In the 1st half of 2018 Colombo District shows the highest percentage (44.9%) of population using internet while Badulla District shows the lowest percentage (10.1%).

The survey results reveal that 9.8% of the household population aged five to 69 years have used e-mail facility at least once during the last 12-month period. The highest e-mail usage is reported from the Colombo District (20.4%). The lowest e-mail usage among the districts has reported from the Monaragala District (3.7%).