The Human Opportunities Index (HOI) for mobile-phone access quantifies whether access to the service is associated with personal or household characteristics beyond an individual’s control. It combines the proportion of the relevant population that has access with the extent to which access varies across circumstance groups. In this application, the groups are distinguished by factors such as place of residence, household income per person, parental education, the child’s sex, family composition, number of siblings and the sex of the household head. The index therefore reflects both the level of access and its distribution across these groups: it may rise when coverage expands, when disparities between groups narrow, or when both changes occur.
Source: World Bank Open Data (source). This glossary entry was independently prepared from the cited open-data metadata; changes were made.