South Africa: Social globalization

The latest value from 2023 is 63.95 points, a decline from 64.08 points in 2022. In comparison, the world average is 63.33 points, based on data from 191 countries. Historically, the average for South Africa from 1970 to 2023 is 48.91 points. The minimum value, 34.73 points, was reached in 1985 while the maximum of 67.37 points was recorded in 2017. See the global rankings for that indicator or use the country comparator to compare trends over time.

The KOF Social Globalization Index for South Africa and other countries has three dimensions. First, it reflects the extent of personal contacts across borders via travel, migration, remittances, and other means. Second, it measures the information flow between South Africa and the rest of the world in terms of telecommunications through television, internet, mail, and other channels. Third, the index reflects the cultural proximity of a country to other countries via the access to international movies, music, and other media. Various measures for these indicators are compiled into one overall "social globalization" index for South Africa.

Definition: Social globalization has three dimensions: personal contacts, information flows, and cultural proximity. The sub-index on personal contacts includes international telecom traffic, degree of tourism, transfers, foreign population, and number of international letters. The sub-index on information flows includes number of internet users, share of households with a television set, and trade in newspapers. The sub-index on cultural proximity includes trade in books and number of McDonald’s restaurants and Ikea located in a country. More information and the original data can be obtained here.