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This chapter may be freely cited, provided proper citation is given.  See bottom for notice.

In this review, we describe communication and travel trends . Communication and travel reflect the potential for interactions within and among cultures, and thus can be seen as mechanisms of cultural change. TV, radio, newspapers, internet and tourism can make it possible for one society to know about another. If societies know something about other cultures, they can see what is possible for their own, or what to avoid.

Specific characteristics examined in this report include:

Newspaper circulation, radios, television per capita, 1970 to 1997, data from UNESCO, http://www.uis.unesco.org

Internet use, 1995 to 2002, from NAU How Many On Line surveys,  http://www.nua.ie/surveys/index.cgi

Tourism, 1990 to 2002, from the World Tourism Organization,  http://www.world-tourism.org/     Tourism data refers to number of arrivals to world regions, e.g., the number of people who arrived in the Americas, Europe, Africa, etc. Data showing points of origin (where people come from) would be a valuable complement, but does not seem to be available.

These characteristics are described because there are freely available data about them on the web, the data describes most of the world, and the available data each cover more than a single year.

In the appendix, we describe the data in detail.

NOTE: For the variables presented in this report, some tables show less developed versus more developed countries. Other tables divide the world into geographic regions. We present the data as they are shown in the original tables. While the divisions are different, the conclusions overall are the same. In general, North America and Europe are mainly more developed and Africa and Asia are mainly less developed countries. Using both of these divisions, we develop a consistent picture of change, described below.
 

I Summary

Overall, there has been an increase in the potential for interaction within and among cultures. Especially among the less developed world, there has been large increases in TV, radio, newspaper, internet availability and usage.
 

Newspaper, Radio and TVs per 1,000 people.

Newspaper circulation per person has increased in less developed countries (LDCs) but decreased in more developed countries (MDCs). Newspaper circulation is still four times as high in more developed countries as it is in less developed countries.

Number of radio receivers per person has increased in both less developed and more developed countries. The rate of increase has been higher among less developed countries than it was among more developed countries. For LDCs , number of radio receivers was almost 3 times as high in 1997 as in 1970, while number of radio receivers had less than doubled in more developed countries over that time period. In 1997, number of radio receivers per person in MDCs was a little over 4 times as high as it was in LDCs.

Number of TV receivers per person increased in both less developed and more developed countries. The largest increase was in East Asia and Oceania, where TV receivers per 1,000 people grew from 3 in 1970 to 253 in 1997.

Table 1.
Newspaper, Radios and TVs per 1,000 inhabitant

	Daily Newspaper, Circulation per 1000 inhabitant
	World	Less Developed	More Developed
1970	107	29	292
1980	111	37	363
1990	107	42	340
1997	96	60	226

	Number of radio receivers, per 1000 inhabitant
	World	Less Developed	More Developed
1970	245	90	643
1980	312	120	880
1990	394	220	987
1997	418	245	1061

	Number of television receivers, per 1000 inhabitant
	World	Less Developed	More Developed
1970	81	10	263
1980	127	27	424
1990	208	124	492
1997	240	157	548

Tables reproduced by permission from  http://www.uis.unesco.org

There has been a very strong increase in internet use from 1996 to 2002. Internet use increased by about 6 times in North America, by about 20 times in Europe and by about 30 times in Asia/Pacific. As a result of the very high growth in Europe and Asia/Pacific, internet use has become a world wide phenomena.

Table 2
Estimated internet users on line
(millions)

	1996	1997	1998	2002
World.	45	100	120-160	605.6
Internet users by location
North America	30	64	80	183
Europe	9	20	30	191
Asia/Pacific	6	14	24	187

Derived from How many on line surveys
http://www.nua.ie/surveys/index.cgi

Tourism has increased both in terms of absolute number of arrivals and number of arrivals per 1,000 population. Major regional trends have been a slight decline in the proportion going to Europe and the Americas, and a slight increases in the proportion going Asia/Pacific, Africa and the Middle East.

II Detailed Analysis of Trends

A. Newspapers, radios and television
 

Newspaper circulation per person has increased in less developed countries (LDCs) but decreased in more developed countries (MDCs). The decline in circulation per 1,000 person in MDCs was matched by a decline in the number of dailies and most recently by a decline in total circulation. Newspaper circulation is still three times as high in more developed countries as it is in less developed countries.

Number of radio receivers per person has increased in both less developed and more developed countries. The rate of increase has been higher among less developed countries than it was among more developed countries. For LDCs , number of radio receivers was almost 3 times as high in 1997 as in 1970, while number of radio receivers less than doubled in MDCs.

Also, in 1997, the number of radio receivers per person in MDCs was a little over four times as high as it was in LDCs. In contrast, in 1970, the number of radio receivers per person in MDCs was a over six times as high as it was in LDCs.

Number of TV receivers per person increased in both less developed and more developed countries. The largest increase was in East Asia and Oceana, where TV receivers per 1,000 grew from 3 in 1970 to 253 in 1997. In 1997, there were more TVs in less developed countries, but because the population was much higher, there were fewer TVs per 1,000 persons.

B. Internet Use

There has been a very strong increase in internet use from 1996 to 2002. In 1996, the internet was mainly used in the west (e.g., North America and Europe).

However, internet use increased by about 6 times in North America, by about 20 times in Europe and by about 30 times in Asia/Pacific, and nearly by 30 times in Latin America. As a result of the very high growth in Europe and Asia/Pacific, internet use has become a world wide phenomena. It seems very likely that the growth in internet use will continue, especially in Asia/Pacific and in Latin America.

C. Tourism

Tourism has increased in absolute number of arrivals. Also, comparing number of arrivals to world population (shown in table 3 above) indicates that tourism has increased from 87 arrivals per 1,000 population in 1997 to 97 per 1,000 in 1995 and to 115 per 1,000 in 2002. (Using world population data from US Census Bureau, International Database,  http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/idbnew.html )

Major regional trends have been a slight decline in the proportion going to Europe and the Americas, and a slight increases in the proportion of tourism to Asia/Pacific, Africa and the Middle East. The decrease in proportion of tourism to the Americas has been mainly due to decrease in proportion of tourism to North America (not shown), from 16% of total in 1990 to 15% in 1995 and 12% in 2002. Just to note, the relative decline in tourism to North America (arrivals to North America as percent of all arrivals) had been declining even before the 9/11 terrorist attack, but the actual number of arrivals dropped from 91 million in 2000 to 85 million in 2001.

III Appendix

A. Other reports

Internet.com has an article about the number of users on line, http://cyberatlas.internet.com/big_picture/geographics/article/0,,5911_151151,00.html    just for 2002. The numbers are somewhat similar to those cited above from NUA. For example, Canada + USA are 183 million (NAU) and about 184 (Cyberatlas). Similarly, estimates of total world on line are 606 million (NAU) and 580 to 655 (Cyberatlas).

Other internet use data are presented at Internet World Stats,   http://www.internetworldstats.com/   An International website featuring worldwide up to date Internet Usage Statistics and 2004 Population Data for over 233 countries and world regions. Their world table   http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm   shows somewhat similar data, for 2000 to 2004. 

B. Data

Newspapers, and radios and television receivers

summary tables at:
Unesco Institute for Statistics, http://www.uis.unesco.org
click on Culture and Communication, then click on the 1999 Statistical Yearbook, as shown in
To view any of the Regional or Country tables from the 1999 Statistical Yearbook, click here.
http://portal.unesco.org/uis/TEMPLATE/html/cult_consult.html
Then, Summary tables by region.
Daily newspapers: number and circulation
is at   http://portal.unesco.org/uis/TEMPLATE/html/CultAndCom/Table_IV_S_1.html
Radio and television receivers
is at   http://portal.unesco.org/uis/TEMPLATE/html/CultAndCom/Table_IV_S_3.html

Definitions from the glossary:

The statistics shown relate to all types of receivers for radio and television broadcasts to the general public, including those connected to a cable distribution system. Private sets installed in public places are also included as well as communal receivers.

Newspapers are periodic publications intended for the general public and mainly designed to be a primary source of written information on current events connected with public affairs, international questions, politics, etc. A newspaper thus defined and issued at least four times a week is considered to be a daily newspaper; those appearing three times a week or less frequently are considered as non-daily newspapers.

Despite the fact that, according to the 1985 Recommendation, the distinguishing feature between newspapers and periodicals is the content and not the periodicity, a few countries, including some demographically important ones, group any periodic publication under either dailies or non-dailies, simply according to the frequency of appearance.
 

Internet Use

We use data from NAU How Many On Line surveys,   http://www.nua.ie/surveys/index.cgi
including data from the following tables or pages.

How Many on line
http://www.nua.ie/surveys/how_many_online/index.html
Internet users as of September 2002
(retrieved May 7, 2003)

Internet Users by Location - 1998
http://www.nua.ie/surveys/analysis/graphs_charts/1998graphs/location.html
(percent of users by location)
http://www.nua.ie/surveys/how_many_online/world.html
(estimate of total for 1998)

1997 Internet Review
http://www.nua.ie/surveys/analysis/yearinreview/archives/1997_yearly_review.html

1996 Internet Review
http://www.nua.com/surveys/analysis/yearinreview/archives/1996_yearly_review.html

Internet Users by Geographic Location (showing 1995 data)
http://www.nua.com/surveys/analysis/graphs_charts/1995graphs/location.html
 

Tourism

Tourism data from the World Tourism Organization,   http://www.world-tourism.org/
As of March 3rd, 2003, click on newsroom, then on World Tourism in 2002: Better than expected, linked to
http://www.world-tourism.org/newsroom/Releases/2003/jan/numbers2002.htm
 
 
 

Prepared by gene shackman and ya-lin liu.
First Copyright May 2003.  May be used provided proper citation is given.
Cite as
Shackman, Gene, Ya-Lin Liu. 2003. Brief review of world trends in communication and travel.   Available at
http://gsociology.icaap.org/report/commsum.html
 

This report was prepared using Netscape. These tables were prepared using   lotus 123    At one time we also used Star Office, the Sun Microsystems office package.  StarOffice isn't offered by Sun anymore, but we got a copy from Twocows. We also used OpenOffice , the successor to StarOffice.

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last updated 6/6/03