Women in low- and middle-income countries remain 12% less likely than men to use mobile internet, leaving 810 million unconnected, despite a slight narrowing of the gender gap in 2025, the GSMA Mobile Gender Gap Report 2026 has found.
The disparity translates to 200 million fewer women online globally. More than two-thirds are concentrated in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, where gender gaps stand at 26% and 25% respectively. The divide is steepest in rural areas, where women are two to three times less likely than men to be connected.
Smartphone ownership remains a parallel barrier. Women in LMICs are 13% less likely to own a smartphone — a gap representing roughly 210 million fewer female device owners. Affordability, low literacy levels, and limited digital skills continue to block adoption even where awareness of mobile internet is broadly equal between genders.
Women already online face a separate set of constraints. Safety concerns, high data costs, and poor network quality limit how fully they can access digital services, information, and economic opportunities.
“While there has been a slow narrowing of the mobile gender gap since 2022, much more is needed,” said Claire Sibthorpe, Head of Digital Inclusion at the GSMA. “The proliferation of technologies such as AI is creating greater digital divides and inequities, elevating the need to ensure digital inclusion for all.”
The cost of inaction is significant. Closing the mobile internet adoption gap between 2023 and 2030 could contribute $1.3 trillion to global GDP, while bridging the ownership and usage gap could generate an estimated $230 billion in additional revenue for the mobile industry.
The GSMA is calling for coordinated action across governments, industry, and development partners to reduce device and data costs, expand digital literacy programmes, improve online safety, and dismantle the social barriers that keep women offline.
Some progress is recorded. Since 2016, more than 50 mobile operators participating in the GSMA Connected Women Commitment Initiative have collectively connected over 90 million additional women to mobile internet and mobile money services.
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