Number of people who own cell phones up 147% in ten years

The number of people over 9 years old who own a cell phone for personal use in 2015 was 139.1 million, which corresponds to 78.3% of the country's population within this age group. Compared with 2005, this rate rocketed 147.2%—in 2005, 56 million people owned cell phones. Compared with 2014, the rise reached 1.8%.

The information was published in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Supplement, which is part of the National Household Sampling Survey (PNAD), released this Thursday (Dec. 22) by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE)

The Federal District is the federation unit with the highest percentage of people who have cell phones: 90.7%. Maranhão reported the lowest percentage: 54.7%.

According to the survey, 82.8% of people who live in urban areas have a cell phone. For rural areas, the rate stood at 52.8%.

By age group, people from 25 to 29 years old reported the highest rate of cell phones owners (89.8%). For people between 20 and 24 years old, the rate reached 89.6%, and between 30 and 34, 89.4%.

The higher the education level, the greater the number of people who have cell phones—97% of people with 15 years or more of schooling have the device. Among those without education or with less than 1 year of schooling, the rate drops to 40.5%.

Income also has influenced the result. Among people who earn over 10 minimum wages, 96.4% of them have a cell phone. Among people who do not have a real income or receive only up to a quarter of a minimum wage, the rate stood at 53.9%.

Translated by Amarílis Anchieta