Digital Literacy and Internet Access Gaps Are Leaving Some Canadians Behind, New .CA Insights Report Shows

The findings from the Q4 2021 .CA Insights Report how new trends and new players to keep an eye out for.

With 129,000 new domains registered in the last trimester of 2021, .CA is the best way for businesses and creators to show their Canadian pride online. To highlight some of the trends appearing on the Canadian internet landscape, CIRA has analyzed registry data from September to December 2021, as well as public national and provincial information from across the country.

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With a focus on digital literacy and equity in northern Canada, this data and the analysis from CIRA’s non-profit partner DigitalNWT, show how the gaps in digital connectivity and broadband internet access have profound consequences on local communities and their future.

“There is a big debilitating gap. It’s no surprise that there are few domains coming from [communities other than the capital] because so many N.W.T. communities have very limited internet access,” says Kyle Napier, Communications Coordinator for DigitalNWT.

Key Findings

• The full findings can be found in the Q4 2021 .CA Insights Report
• Northwest Territories spotlight -The gap in internet access and digital literacy is still very much existent in Northern Canada. New data reveals the connection between internet access and .CA domain registrations in Northwest Territories.
• Badness index: Data indicates that .CA domains are some of the safest domains amongst all TLDs, its badness index remaining stable at 0.03 since last quarter, while .com’s index increased to 0.66 (+3%).
• Top visited .CA websites:
  • Since Q3, Best Buy has gained some ground, moving up five spots on the rankings
  • eBay has slipped off the top 10 chart this quarter, making way for newcomers Pinterest and Walmart
  • The Canada Revenue Agency and CBC have moved down in the ranks this quarter

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