Gathering socioeconomic data is generally expensive and difficult to do. The most important data usually comes from censuses that reveal the size of the population and other essential details such as geographical distribution and age and gender structure.
Censuses, however, require detailed planning and analysis, both of which cost a lot of time and money. They also need a relatively stable society. These factors make socioeconomic studies difficult to do in developing countries which suffer from poverty, war, disease, and famine. And that is why economists, sociologists, and policy experts would like to find faster and cheaper methods to gather data. Thanks to mobile phones, one such method emerged.
Mobile phones have spread widely in the developing world, more quickly than other services such as electrification. In Senegal, for example, only 24% of households are electrified, and yet 75% have mobile phones, with people presumably charging them from car engines, from neighbors, or wherever they can.
Mobile-phone data is a veritable treasure trove of detail about society and the human condition. Researchers have used it to better understand mobility patterns, to study human reproductive strategies, and to measure literacy levels. And economists have used it to map wealth in developing countries.
That raises the possibility that mobile-phone data could supplement and in some cases replace census results. But just how much more useful can this data be?
Know more about this topic over at Technology Review.
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