Kenya is an ‘overachiever’ with regard to using the internet while South Africa is ranked among the world’s top five emerging nations with the highest levels of access to the web.

This is according to the Web Index 2013, which has been conducted by the World Wide Web Foundation and measures the web’s growth, utility and impact on people and nations.

Key global findings of the report include that Sweden and Norway are the world’s two top performing countries overall in this year’s web index, as almost 95% of people in these countries are online.

Meanwhile, the report says that in Africa, fewer than one in five people are using the internet.

Between 50% and 70% of Africans say high costs are the main reason why they are not online, according to the index.

But despite the gloomy picture for Africa, the report does highlight a few shining African examples.

Kenya, for example, ranks 53rd overall on the index, and is the fourth highest ranked African nation behind South Africa at 35, Mauritius at 40 and Tunisia at 44.

More specifically, Kenya ranks 63rd in terms of universal access, 57th regarding freedom and openness, 55 for relevant content and at 36 for empowerment.

And as Kenya is a low-income country according to the World Bank, the World Wide Web foundation has labeled the East African nation as an “overachiever” in terms of its status in the index.

Kenya’s income rank on the index is 68 while its web index rank is 53, meaning that the difference is 15 places between the two.

“On this year’s Index, the biggest overachievers, achieving a web index rank at least 14 places ahead of their rank by per capita income, included the Philippines, New Zealand, Colombia, Korea, Kenya, the UK and Estonia,” says the report.

“The Philippines was the developing country that achieved the highest overall ranking in the Web Index 2013, followed by Indonesia, Kenya, Morocco and Ghana,” the report also explains.

Meanwhile, South Africa, which is described as a middle income country by the World Bank, has been ranked among the top five emerging market nations on the index.

In this category, Mexico achieved the highest overall position in the Web Index 2013 at 30, followed by Colombia at 32, Brazil at 33, Costa Rica at 34 and South Africa at 35.

More specifically, South Africa scored 34 in terms of universal access, 20 for freedom and openness, 48 for relevant content and 37 for empowerment.

But the report does highlight concerns regarding South Africa’s efforts, or rather lack thereof, to further boost web access.

“South Africa’s database of school infrastructure needs, covering almost 25,000 public schools and designed to be regularly updated, reveals issues of serious concern,” says the report.

“For example, 68% of schools do not have any computers and almost 80% do not have libraries,” the report adds.

Africa’s second largest economy Nigeria has an overall ranking of 67 on the index.

Other global findings of the report has also highlighted that internet spying and blocking are on the rise worldwide.

Almost one in three countries worldwide block politically sensitive web content to a moderate or severe extent while just five countries have met best practice standards for checks and balances on government interception of electronic communications, the report says.

“Provisions against cybercrime, terrorism, or blasphemy are frequently being employed to silence legitimate dissent or justifying blanket digital surveillance,” says the report.

World Wide Web founder Sir Tim Berners-Lee last year introduced the inaugural index.

Berners-Lee is a member of the Web Index Science Council that provides advice in the construction and analysis of the Web Index.