Argentina
The digital economy in Argentina has been steadily growing, driven by a tech-savvy population and a robust entrepreneurial spirit. Argentina boasts a vibrant startup scene, especially in Buenos Aires, which is often considered the Silicon Valley of South America. The country has produced several unicorns—startups valued at over $1 billion—including MercadoLibre, an e-commerce giant, and Globant, an IT and software development company.
Internet governance
In Argentina, the safeguarding of personal data is primarily regulated under the Law on Personal Data Protection, enacted in 2000. This legislation mandates that any entity aiming to collect and process personal data must first gain the informed consent of data subjects. Additionally, data controllers are required to register with the National Registry of Personal Databases. The law emphasizes adherence to key principles such as lawfulness and purpose limitation, ensuring that personal data is handled appropriately and transparently.
Data subjects in Argentina enjoy several rights under this law, including the ability to access, rectify, and update their personal information. Moreover, the law protects individuals from being compelled to provide sensitive personal data, bolstering privacy and personal integrity.
Beyond its borders, Argentina adopts a progressive approach to internet governance, advocating strongly for principles like net neutrality, which aims to keep the internet as an open and accessible platform for all. The country plays an active role in international forums dedicated to internet governance, such as the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), where it contributes to global dialogues on these critical issues.
Supporting a multi-stakeholder model, Argentina’s strategy involves various sectors including government, the private sector, civil society, and academia. Furthermore, Argentina is home to the South School on Internet Governance, an initiative focused on educating future leaders about the complexities of internet governance. This school places a special emphasis on the Latin America and Caribbean region, aiming to enhance regional expertise and leadership in the digital domain.
Digital strategies
Argentina is actively pursuing digital transformation strategies to enhance connectivity, modernize public administration, and improve educational opportunities through technology. These initiatives are part of a broader commitment to ensure that internet access is a basic right for all its citizens, focusing on expanding digital access and literacy.
País Digital Initiative: This program is central to Argentina’s effort to ensure widespread internet connectivity, particularly focusing on rural and underserved areas. The initiative aims to democratize access to digital technologies, enabling citizens nationwide to participate more fully in the digital economy.
Plan Federal de Internet: A key component of the national strategy involves the expansion of fiber-optic networks to enhance the quality and affordability of internet services across Argentina. This plan is especially focused on reaching remote areas, thereby reducing the digital divide and ensuring that more citizens can access fast and reliable internet.
Aprender Conectados: This educational program integrates digital skills training into the curriculum from an early age. It offers programming and robotics classes in kindergartens and schools, aiming to equip the next generation with essential digital competencies.
Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity in Argentina is undergoing significant advancements and challenges. In response to escalating cyber threats, the Argentine government has implemented the Second National Cybersecurity Strategy. This strategy, updated from the first enacted in 2019, aims to strengthen the security of IT infrastructures and enhance protections for state administration, essential services, and the public.
To support these efforts, Argentina has ratified CoE Convention on Cybercrime (Budapest Convention) and has also become a signatory to the Second Additional Protocol to the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime, which enhances international cooperation on cybercrime and electronic evidence.
On the ground, Argentina faces a real and growing threat from cyberattacks, with a significant number of these attacks targeting mobile devices due to high mobile internet penetration in the region. Recognizing the critical nature of these threats, Argentina, with the support of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), has launched a $30 million Cybersecurity Program for Critical Information Infrastructures. This initiative aims to reduce the costs of cyberattacks through early detection and enhanced protective measures for public institutions and technological infrastructures.
The CERT.ar serves as the National Computer Emergency Response Team of Argentina. It is the central authority for coordinating cybersecurity efforts across various sectors, providing guidance, support, and incident response services to both public and private entities.
AI strategies and policies
The AI landscape in Argentina is evolving with significant developments in both the legal framework and guidelines for AI development and usage. In June 2023, Argentina introduced a comprehensive legal framework to Congress specifically aimed at regulating AI. This proposed legislation mandates AI developers to register their systems and adhere to fundamental ethical principles such as human dignity, privacy, transparency, responsibility, and fairness. It emphasises implementing robust security measures and establishes a risk-based approach for assessing AI systems. This approach categorises systems based on their potential risk levels: unacceptable, high, limited, or insignificant. The proposal also outlines the creation of an AI Supervisory Authority, which would oversee compliance, issue risk-based requirements, and specify AI systems that should be banned due to their potential to violate human rights, engage in unfair discrimination, or pose serious security threats. This initiative follows a previous unsuccessful attempt to establish a Federal AI Council, which would have promoted AI awareness and research in the country.
Beyond legislative efforts, the Department for Information Technologies adopted non-binding recommendations in June 2023. These recommendations guide AI developers in ensuring the quality and adequacy of the data used in AI systems, as well as enhancing the safety and transparency of these technologies.
The data is sourced from reputable international agencies and organizations. Hover over each field for source information and explanations.
General profile
Official name: Argentine Republic
National internet domain: AR
Area: 2,780,400 km2
Capital: Buenos Aires
Population: 46.7 million
The displayed data represents the most recent information obtained from sources, typically covering the years 2018 to 2023.Population growth: 0.90
Annual population growth rate for year t is the exponential rate of growth of midyear population from year t-1 to t, expressed as a percentage. Population is based on the de facto definition of population, which counts all residents regardless of legal status or citizenship.The displayed data represents the most recent information obtained from sources, typically covering the years 2018 to 2023.
Life expectancy at birth: 76.06
Total years (Estimate for 2022)The displayed data represents the most recent information obtained from sources, typically covering the years 2018 to 2023.
Rule of law estimate: -0.48
Rule of Law captures perceptions of the extent to which agents have confidence in and abide by the rules of society, and in particular the quality of contract enforcement, property rights, the police, and the courts, as well as the likelihood of crime and violence. Estimate gives the country's score ranging from approximately -2.5 to 2.5 (Estimate for 2023) Regulatory quality estimate: -0.70
Political stability: -0.01
Economic info
Currency: Argentine peso
Unemployment (%): 6.14
Unemployment, total (% of total labor force)The displayed data represents the most recent information obtained from sources, typically covering the years 2018 to 2023.
GDP (current US$): 640.6 billion
GDP growth (annual %): -1.55
GDP per capita (current US$): 13.7 thousand
The displayed data represents the most recent information obtained from sources, typically covering the years 2018 to 2023.Inflation, consumer prices (annual %): No data
The displayed data represents the most recent information obtained from sources, typically covering the years 2018 to 2023.Digital profile
Internet and social media penetration:
Individuals using the internet, total (%): 89.23
The displayed data represents the most recent information obtained from sources, typically covering the years 2018 to 2023.Social media users: 31.3 million
Estimate for 2024Male internet users (%): 89.40
Male internet users as a % of total male population.The displayed data represents the most recent information obtained from sources, typically covering the years 2018 to 2023.
Facebook users: 28.8 million
Estimate for 2024Female internet users (%): 89
Female Internet users as a % of total female population.The displayed data represents the most recent information obtained from sources, typically covering the years 2018 to 2023.
Instagram users: 27.9 million
Estimate for 2024Households with internet access at home (%): 93.38
The displayed data represents the most recent information obtained from sources, typically covering the years 2018 to 2023.Linkedin users: 13.0 million
Estimate for 2024Fixed broadband subscriptions: 25.36
Total fixed broadband subscriptions (per 100 people) refers to fixed subscriptions to high-speed access to the public internet (a TCP/IP connection), at downstream speeds equal to, or greater than, 256 kbit/s.The displayed data represents the most recent information obtained from sources, typically covering the years 2018 to 2023.
X users: 8.5 million
Estimate for 2024Mobile infrastructure and access:
Mobile ownership (%): 77.47
Mobile phone ownership as a % of total population (Estimate for 2023)Mobile Infrastructure: 66.20
Mobile Infrastructure index: High-performance mobile internet coverage availability. It includes parameters such as network coverage, performance, quality of supporting infrastructure and amount of spectrum assigned to mobile network operators (Estimate for 2023)Gender gap in mobile internet (%): 0
This metric evaluates the disparity in mobile internet access between genders. (Estimate for 2023)Mobile Affordability: 48.03
Mobile Affordability index : The availability of mobile services and devices at price points that reflect the level of income across a national population. It includes parameters such as mobile tariffs, headset prices, taxation and inequality (Estimate for 2023)Gender gap in mobile ownership (%): 0
Represents the disparity between genders in owning mobile devices. (Estimate for 2023)Top-Level Domains (TLDs) per person: 60.39
Number of generic and country Top Level Domains per person Estimate for 2023.Network performance: 53.95
Network performance index: Quality of mobile services measured by download speed, upload speed and latencies (Estimate for 2023)Mobile download speeds: 32.49
Mobile download speeds: Average download speed for mobile users (originally in Mbit/s) (Estimate for 2023)Mobile uploads speeds: 45.09
Mobile uploads speeds: average uploads speed for mobile users (originally in Mbit/s) (Estimate for 2023)Mobile Latencies: 84.28
Mobile Latencies: Average latency for mobile users (originally in milliseconds) (Estimate for 2023)Network Coverage (%): 87.69
Network coverage (% of total population) (Estimate for 2023)2G Coverage (%): 98.87
Coverage % of population (Estimate for 2023)3G Coverage (%): 96
Coverage % of population (Estimate for 2023)4G Coverage (%): 96
Coverage % of population (Estimate for 2023)5G Coverage (%): 10
Coverage % of population (Estimate for 2023)Operating system and browser market share estimate
Operating system market share (%):
Desktop, Tablet & Console Operating System Market Share: Estimate for 2024Browser market share (%):
Browser Market Share Worldwide: Estimate for 2024Android: 53.79
Chrome: 83.50
Win10: 24.88
Safari: 5.99
iOS: 7.09
Edge: 3
OS X: 1.69
Firefox: 2.19
Win11: 8.78
Samsung Internet: 3.03
The UN E-Government Survey
The UN E-Government Survey is the assessment of the digital government landscape across all UN member states. The E-Government Survey is informed by over two decades of longitudinal research, with a ranking of countries based on the UN E-Government Development Index (EGDI), a combination of primary data (collected and owned by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs) and secondary data from other UN agencies.E-Government Rank: 42
Nations E-Government Development Index (EGDI), a combination of primary data (collected and owned by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs) and secondary data from other UN agencies. Estimate gives the country's rank.E-Government Index: 0.85
The EGDI is a composite measure of three important dimensions of e-government, namely: provision of online services, telecommunication connectivity and human capacity. Estimate gives the country's score ranging from approximately 0 to 1.E-Participation Index: 0.63
The E-Participation Index (EPI) is derived as a supplementary index to the United Nations E-Government Survey. Estimate gives the country's score ranging from approximately 0 to 1.Online Service Index: 0.79
The online services index was developed by the UN to evaluate the scope and quality of government online services. Estimate gives the country's score ranging from approximately 0 to 1.Human Capital Index: 0.93
The Human Capital Index (HCI) quantiï¬es the contribution of health and education to the productivity of the next generation of workers. Estimate gives the country's score ranging from approximately 0 to 1.Telecommunication Infrastructure Index: 0.84
Telecommunication Infrastructure Index- Telecommunication Infrastructure Index (TII) Composite Indicator that measures the countries' Telecommunication infrastructure readiness to adopt the opportunities offered by Information and Communication Technology as to enhance their competitiveness. Estimate gives the country's score ranging from approximately 0 to 1.Government AI Readiness Index
Ranking: 62
Global Ranking is calculated based on the total score. (Estimate for 2024).Total: 56.40
The total score is calculated by taking the arithmetic mean of each dimension, followed by the arithmetic mean of each pillar. The final score is the arithmetic mean of the three pillars, with all indicators, dimensions, and pillars weighted equally. (Estimate for 2024).Government: 64.65
This pillar evaluates a government's readiness and capability to implement AI responsibly and effectively. It includes several dimensions: the presence of a national AI strategy (Vision), regulations for data protection, privacy, and cybersecurity, along with ethical frameworks and accountability measures (Governance and Ethics). It also considers the existing IT infrastructure, online services, and promotion of emerging technology investments (Digital Capacity). Finally, it assesses the government’s ability to change and innovate effectively, including responsiveness to change, effectiveness, and use of procurement data (Adaptability). (Estimate for 2024).Technology Sector: 37.09
This pillar assesses the country's technology sector and its ability to support AI implementation. It includes the maturity of the sector, measured by metrics such as the number of AI and non-AI unicorns, value of trade in ICT services and goods, and spending on computer software (Maturity). It also evaluates the sector's capacity for innovation, considering factors like time spent dealing with regulations, availability of venture capital, R&D spending, company investment in emerging technology, and research papers published in AI (Innovation Capacity). Additionally, it examines the availability of skills within the population, focusing on STEM graduates, GitHub users, female STEM graduates, quality of engineering education, and ICT skills (Human Capital). (Estimate for 2024).Data and Infrastructure: 67.47
This pillar evaluates a country’s technological and data infrastructure to support AI implementation. It examines the quality of technological infrastructure, including telecommunications, supercomputing capabilities, broadband quality, 5G infrastructure, and the adoption of emerging technologies (Infrastructure). It also assesses the availability of data for training AI models, considering factors such as open data, data governance, mobile-cellular subscriptions, household internet access, and statistical capacity (Data Availability). Additionally, it considers the representativeness of the available data, focusing on metrics like the gender gap in internet access and the affordability of internet-enabled devices relative to GDP per capita (Data Representativeness). (Estimate for 2024).