Countries in the Caucasus and Central Asia are among the most digitally connected in the world, according to a recent survey by the International Telecommunications Union.

The organisation’s 2025 Information and Communication Technologies Development Index shows that the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) as a region lags only slightly behind Europe in terms of “universal and meaningful connectivity.” Broadly speaking, the report shows a steady advance in digital connectivity around the world.

“The 2025 results show continued global advances in connectivity, with nearly all economies improving their performance,” the report states. “It is encouraging that low-income countries tend to be progressing the fastest, although from a low base. Gaps with higher-income countries remain wide.”

The survey shows that Kazakhstan is the most digitally advanced country in Central Asia, while Georgia leads in the Caucasus. But other regional states, including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, were all not far behind. Azerbaijan registered the most improvement in the 2025 survey compared to the results in the 2024 survey. The ITU noted that it could not obtain sufficient data to include Tajikistan and Turkmenistan in the survey.

Kazakhstan’s overall index score exceeded those of several European Union member states, including Belgium, the Czech Republic and Hungary. 

In many respects there was little separating all of the countries measured in the Caucasus and Central Asia. In the Caucasus for example, Georgia recorded the highest percentage of individuals owning a cellular phone at 93%, followed by Azerbaijan at 84% and Armenia at 77%. But Armenia had the highest percentage of “households with Internet access at home” at 91.7%, surpassing Azerbaijan (88.6%) and Georgia (89%).

Kazakhstan led all the countries in the region in terms of the percentage of “households with Internet access at home” at almost 97%, yet the country scored the lowest of the regional states surveyed in terms of the “percentage of the population covered by at least a 4G/LTE mobile network” at 89%.

The survey sought to distinguish what it describes as “universal connectivity,” basically general access to the Internet, from “meaningful connectivity,” which the ITU defines as being “based on the premise that realizing the full potential of connectivity requires more than access – it also means addressing barriers such as affordability, digital skills, and connection quality.”

Uzbekistan was the only state among the regional countries measured that had a lower score for “meaningful connectivity” than for “universal connectivity,” suggesting that that the country has a “digital awareness” gap that hinders citizens from taking full advantage of available resources.

Conversely, Kyrgyzstan is the country taking the greatest advantage of its digital infrastructure, based on its meaningful connectivity score relative to its universal connectivity ranking. Even so, Kyrgyzstan was the only regional state to see its overall index score decline in 2025, compared with its previous year’s results.

Russia had the highest “meaningful connectivity” ranking among all CIS states.

“While the overall results are encouraging, the [index] remains a partial snapshot of digital connectivity,” the survey concludes. “Several critical dimensions are not yet captured, due to data gaps.”

This article first appeared on Eurasianet here.