Tag Archives: armenia

14 Mar

Armenian ICT adoption – updated

Images from my #ictd2012 poster, plus some updates on April 1.

Some fun bits:

– 37% of Armenians have used the Internet — that’s some major growth, as you can see on slide 2.

– And Armenians are using the Internet more often. 22% of Armenians are online daily and 8% are online weekly. Big increases from the past few years.

– Those that are NOT online are more likely to be rural, poorer, less educated, and older — but when they were asked, most said that they didn’t get online because they don’t have a computer, followed by a lack of interest or need.

– From the original post  I have the PC, mobile, and home Internet connection data from the Caucasus Barometer, the ITU, and Gallup. Based on methodology, I give the most weight to the Caucasus Barometer, but I figured that it’d be interesting to see how the three measure up.

In the next few days I’ll post online activities and some demographic breakdowns. As always, if you have questions, I’m happy to do some analysis for you. And, please link back to this post and/or give the proper attribution if you use these stats. This is the result of many hours of analysis and I appreciate your respect for my intellectual labor and property.

Armenia ict adoption ii

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Armenia ICT Adoption by Katy Pearce is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at www.katypearce.net.

13 Mar

Where do Armenians get online?

I’m at the #ictd2012 conference right now and I’ve been asked about Armenian Internet use. Business Internet use is actually quite low, especially compared to household use. This surprises a lot of people.

So I did a quick analysis to find out where Armenians get online most often. (This is rough 2011 Caucasus Barometer — will revise if different in the final version.) And this is of ALL Armenians.

19% of all Armenians get online at home.

3% on a friend’s computer.

2% at work.

2% via the mobile.

1% at an Internet cafe.

10 Jan

What do Armenians do on social networking sites?

More from the ArMedia dataset…

With so many Armenians on social networking sites (85% of mobile Internet users, 83% of Armenians that have both mobile and PC-based Internet, and 54% of PC-based Internet users in Armenia, as of a year ago), what are they doing on there?

Mostly communicating with friends! While only a little bit more than a third (37%) of Armenians that access social networking sites via a computer say that they communicate with friends, three-quarters of mobile Internet SNS users and 83% of those with both mobile and PC Internet and use SNSs say they’re communicating with pals.

Some use messaging to communicate with friends (27% of PC SNS users, 23% of mobile SNS users, and 19% that have both mobile and PC for SNS access).

Those PC SNS users are busy with something else — they’re sharing information (well, 37% of them are), but compared to only 13% of those with both and 17% of those with mobile for SNS access, this is a lot!

Those PC users are givers, not takers — they are busy sharing information, but they’re not really seeking information. Only 8% of PC SNS users are seeking information on social networking sites, while a quarter of mobile users and those with both PC and mobile for SNS access do.

What about new people? In my qualitative work I’ve heard a lot about Armenians trying to meet dating partners on social networking sites – and maybe this is the case in this data as well. A quarter to a third of Armenian SNS users are trying to meet new people on social networking sites.

Games are a bit popular too, especially with mobile users — a third of those with both PC and mobile and a quarter of mobile-only SNS users play games. Only 18% of PC SNS users do though.

Photos, videos, and music are posted by 17-27% of SNS users too.

** If anyone is interested, I can do a Facebook versus Odnoklassniki breakdown. **

New data is coming soon (hoorah!), but this gives a pretty good snapshot of Armenian social network site use in January-February 2011.

What do Armenians do on social networking sites?

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05 Dec

Regional differences in mean of accessing the Internet

Based on data from the Armenian Media landscape report, here are the regional breakdowns of means of accessing the Internet in Armenia (in early 2011).

You can see that for the country as a whole, most Internet users are personal computer based – although mobile is not insignificant. In the capital, PC dominates, but for rural users, mobile is catching up to PC. And those mobile users are often NEW users.

In an upcoming study we discuss how much the way people access the Internet influences what they actually do once they’re online as well as the demographic differences between those that use a PC and those that use a mobile phone as their primary Internet access device.

This is the entire country.

This is Yerevan.

This is regional cities.

This is rural areas.

(All images by Janine Slaker)

 OF ALL ARMENIAN INTERNET USERS

Total

Yerevan

Regional city

Rural
N = 420

N = 215

N = 145

N = 60
Mobile Internet access

15%

10%

19%

28%
PC-based Internet access

71%

73%

77%

62%

Both mobile and
PC based Internet access

 11%

17%

4%

10%
 OF ALL ARMENIANS

Total

Yerevan

Regional city

Rural
N = 1420

N = 504

N = 443

N = 473
No Internet access 70%

57%

67%

87%
Mobile Internet access

5%

4%

6%

4%
PC-based Internet access

22%

31%

25%

8%

Both mobile and
PC based Internet access

 3%

7%

1%

1%
18 Aug

English language proficiency in the Caucasus

I’m working on a project right now looking at the relationship between English language proficiency and Internet use in the Caucasus.

Although wandering around Yerevan, Baku, or Tbilisi might tell you something different, English language proficiency in these countries is actually quite low.

Between 1-4% of the population considers themselves “advanced” in the English language and two-thirds to three-quarters have no proficiency whatsoever.

And despite conventional wisdom, it looks like there hasn’t been much growth in English proficiency since Caucasus Barometer started measuring it in 2007. And in Azerbaijan it seems to have gone down a little bit (out migration?).

What are the demographic characteristics that predict English language proficiency?

First, one’s education level (standardized beta .30) is the stronger predictor of English language proficiency.

Next is one’s urbanness. The more urban you are (capital, regional city, rural area), the more likely you are to know English (standardized beta .15).

Then one’s material deprivation (which means wealth/poverty). The wealthier you are, the more likely you are to know English (standardized beta .13).

Finally, gender matters. Women are more likely to know English (there is a lot of research on this and isn’t surprising) (standardized beta .07).

Age didn’t matter at all.

English

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11 Aug

Summary of all economic wellbeing posts – Poverty in the Caucasus

Since I posted a lot of analyses on economic wellbeing in the Caucasus, I thought that I’d put links to them all in one post.

Overall, I hope that this gives people a better sense of what dire poverty exists in all three states. If pressed, I’d say that based on these analyses, Georgia is doing the worst overall and Azerbaijan is doing the best. But without a doubt, there are more similarities in poverty in these three neighbors than there are differences.

Consumption ability
Consumption ability by capital/urban/rural
New consumption 2012

Income sources
Income distribution

Ownership of consumer goods

Food expenses
Borrowing money to buy food

Utilities

Debt and savings

Sanitation

Please feel free to ask questions or requests for further analysis.

11 Aug

What are the sources of income in the Caucasus?

So where do people in Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia get the money that they need to live?

For most households, the primary source of income comes from a paid salary (43% in Armenia, 44% in Azerbaijan, 32% in Georgia).

Another primary source of income for many families is a pension or other government benefit (23% in Armenia, 28% in Azerbaijan, and 30% in Georgia.)

Agricultural sales is another primary source (12% in Armenia, 12% in Azerbaijan, and 15% in Georgia).

But perhaps more interesting looking at total sources of money. Nearly 20% of Armenian families use money from relatives abroad to live on (11% of families use it as the PRIMARY source of income).

In all three countries, relatives help our other relatives that live in the same place (maybe a capital city relative helps village relatives?) (11% in Armenia, 8% in Azerbaijan, and 12% in Georgia).

But what is really interesting is that half of all families depend on some form of government assistance for money, although only a quarter or so say that it is their primary income.

In all three countries, salary and pension are the primary ways that people get money.

Incomesources

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11 Aug

Not surprisingly, Yerevan, Baku, and Tbilisi residents wealthier

Regional differences are a big deal in the Caucasus. Thus, I did a comparison between capital city residents, those that live in regional cities, and rural villagers with the 2010 Caucasus Barometer.

In Armenia in 2010, people living in the capital have the most consumption ability (mean = 2.33), followed by regional cities (mean = 2.04), and the least able to consume are rural people (mean = 1.89).

In Azerbaijan in 2010, people living in the capital are the most able to consume (mean = 2.52), while people in regional cities (mean = 2.11) and rural (mean = 2.12) areas are no different in their consumption ability.

In Georgia in 2010, people living in the capital have the most consumption ability (mean = 2.29), followed by regional cities (mean = 2.11), and the least able to consume are rural people (mean = 1.97).

Comparing all three countries, the group that is able to consume the most is

1. AZ capital
2. AM capital
3. GE capital
4 (tie). AZ rural/ AZ urban / GE urban
5. AM urban
6 (tie). AM rural / GE rural

Thus, a rural Azerbaijani has more ability to buy things than a regional city Armenian or any Armenian or Georgian rural person.

Regionalconsumption

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11 Aug

Armenians, Azerbaijanis, and Georgians’ Food Expenses

Armenians, Azerbaijanis, and Georgians were asked to estimate what percentage of their income is used for food and utilities.

Overall, people in the Caucasus aren’t spending a lot on utilities.

Food, on the other hand, uses up quite a bit of a family’s income.

In all three countries, about half of all families spend more than 50% of their take home on food expenses.

As a comparison, Americans spend 5-6% of their income on food and Russians spend about 20% of their income on food.

Spending

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11 Aug

Income Distribution in Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia

So with all this poverty, how much money are Armenians, Azerbaijanis, and Georgians making?

In Armenia in 2010, the average monthly income was about $200 (mean = 4.74, SD = 1.28).
In Azerbaijan in 2010, the average monthly income was about $300 (mean = 4.17, SD = 1.28).
In Georgia in 2010, the average monthly income was about $150 (mean = 5.42, SD = 1.30).

Between 2009 and 2010, Armenia moved closer to a bell curve of income distribution. In 2009, the vast majority made less than $250 U.S.

In Azerbaijan as well, the distribution is moving closer to a larger middle class.

Georgia remains skewed towards the lower end of income distribution.

Incomedistr

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