KINGSTON, Jamaica — Jamaica has been ranked 99th of 175 countries on the 2016 ICT Development Index (IDI), an improvement of two places from the 2015 rankings, the Ministry of Science, Energy and Technology announced today.

In the Americas, Jamaica is ranked 23rd of 34 countries, the ministry said in a news release.

The rankings were published in the ITU’s 2016 Measuring the Information Society Report, which presents a global and regional overview of the latest developments regarding information and communication technologies (ICTs).

The ministry said Jamaica made progress on indicators such as mobile broadband penetration, Internet use between men and women, and broadband affordability.

According to the report, “The Americas region shared the general trend in the IDI whereby the greatest improvements occurred in the indicator for mobile-broadband penetration.

“Gains on this indicator were driven by large increases in a number of Caribbean countries (St Kitts and Nevis, Grenada, Belize, and Jamaica) and four countries on the South American mainland (Bolivia, Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil),” the report stated.

The report also found that in several Caribbean countries, such as Cuba and Jamaica, Internet usage is higher among women than among men.