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ITU data collection and questionnaires

As a United Nations agency, one of ITU's roles is to identify, define, and produce international official statistics covering the telecommunication/ICT sector. This is in line with other specialized agencies that produce statistics covering their respective field of operations and forms part of the global statistical system of the UN.

ITU collects telecommunication/ICT data for about 200 economies worldwide. These can be divided into three key sets of data:

Telecommunication/ICT infrastructure and access data are collected annually through two questionnaires, one short and one long. These indicators are defined in the Indicators Handbook.
Price data are collected through an annual questionnaire. Price indicators are also defined in the Indicators Handbook.
Data on access to and use of ICTs by households and individuals, are collected annually through two questionnaires, one short and one long. These indicators are defined in the Manual for Measuring ICT Access and Use by Households and Individuals.

For more information on each one of the questionnaires, see the table below.

Data availability

ITU verifies and harmonizes the data received from countries and collects missing values from government web sites and operators' annual reports, particularly for countries that do not reply to the questionnaires. In some cases, market research data are also used to cross-check and complement missing values. Data availability varies between the different types of indicators:

Most countries collect telecommunication/ICT infrastructure and access data, particularly for key indicators, such as the number of mobile cellular subscriptions, fixed telephone lines and Internet subscriptions.
Only relatively few countries respond to the ITU ICT Price Basket Questionnaire and most prices are collected by ITU, directly from telecommunication operators.
More and more countries carry out surveys to collect ICT household data, although data availability for several indicators is still limited, especially data on the use of ICTs by individuals. These 'demand-side' data are important to measure the use and impact of ICTs and serve as a complement to the infrastructure ('supply-side') data.

Data dissemination

Data collected by ITU are maintained in a central database and disseminated as follows:

World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators database (available on USB key or for download)
ITU DataHub, the one-stop shop for ICT information
Analytical (regional, global and thematic) reports, including the ICT Price Basket (IPB), a global benchmarking tool
Publications and databases produced by other international organisations and projects, such as the SDGs, UN Data, the Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development, the World Bank World Development Indicators and the United Nations Statistical Yearbook

Overview of ITU questionnaires

ITU data collection details 2024 (pdf format)

*Name of* *Questionnaire*	Short World Telecommunica-tion/ICT Indicators (WTI) questionnaire	Long World Telecommunica-tion/ICT Indicators (WTI) questionnaire	ICT Price Basket (IPB) Questionnaire	Short Questionnaire on ICT Access and Use by Households and Individuals	LongQuestionnaire on ICT Access and Use by Households and Individuals
*Addressed to*	Government agency in charge of telecommunica-tions/ICT (Ministry, regulatory authority)	Government agency in charge of telecommunica-tions/ICT (Ministry, regulatory authority)	Government agency in charge of telecommunica-tions/ICT (Ministry, regulatory authority)	National Statistical Offices	National Statistical Offices
*Format*	Online	Online	Online	Online	Excel
Periodicity	Annually	Annually	Annually	Annually	Annually
*Collection period*	March/April	September	May	March/April	September
Number of indicators	14	66	5 main sets of ICT prices (mobile cellular, mobile broadband, fixed broadband, mobile data and voice low usage, mobile data and voice high usage)	5	23 core indicators, including many classificatory variables
*Data published*	June	December	June	July	January
*Sample questionnaire*	Click here (pdf format)	Click here (pdf format)	Click here (pdf format)	Click here (pdf format)	Click here (excel format)
*Definition of indicators in 6 languages*	Click here (pdf format)	Click here (pdf format)	IPB Rules (pdf format), Visual Guide (pdf format)	Click here (pdf format)	Click here (pdf format)

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		As the UN specialized agency for ICTs, ITU is the official source for global ICT statistics. Find out more about how we produce and disseminate data, our main events and products. More>