How much money is the internet responsible for on a daily basis, and how much would be lost if the entire world lost internet access for a whole day? The answer, according to a recent report from Atlas VPN, is about $43 billion.
Atlas VPN, a virtual private network provider, got this data through using a data tool called Net Blocks, which estimates the economic impact of an internet disruption, mobile data outage or app restriction using indicators from the World Bank, ITU, Eurostat and U.S. Census.
The damage done by a day without the internet, though, varies depending on how connected an individual polity is: the United States alone would lose about $11 billion of that $43 billion; China would account for about $9.9 billion of those losses; and the United Kingdom about $3.2 billion. These three countries, taken together, account for almost half the losses experienced in a single day.
Conversely, those with less reliance on the internet would see lighter losses. Oceanic islands such as Tuvalu, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru and Micronesia would have the most minor losses if the internet shut down for a day. These countries would lose no more than $50,000.
"We often don't appreciate the backbone role the internet now plays," said the report. "An outage would bring activities to a standstill and underscore how much our economic functions depend on stable online access. Access to the internet should be a basic human right, and should not be restricted by governments or providers."
