Citizens of developing nations overwhelmingly see mobile phones as critical to their country’s economic success and to their own quality of life, a new 22-nation poll by the BBC reveals.

The poll, conducted by GlobeScan among 21,558 people, indicates that the countries most likely to rate mobile phones as “essential” or “very important” to their economy are all in the developing world. Nigerians almost unanimously regard them as central to the economic success of their country (97%), as do large majorities of Egyptians (92%), Filipinos (88%), and Indonesians (82%), among others.

People in developing nations are also most likely to feel strongly about mobile phones’ importance to their own quality of life, with large majorities in all developing nations polled rating them as “essential” or “very important,” including 88 per cent of Kenyans and 78 per cent of Ghanaians.

On average across all 22 countries polled, 32 per cent consider mobile phones “essential” to their country’s economic success, with a further 38% regarding them as “very important.” Nearly as many rated them as critical to their personal quality of life, with 29 per cent rating them as “essential” and 34 per cent “very important.”

But the poll indicates that, by comparison, citizens of several major industrialised economies are less likely to regard mobile phones as having a central role in economic success and personal life. Fewer than half of Germans (49%) and only one in four French (25%) believe that mobile phones are “very important” or “essential” to their country's economic success, as well as a lower than average number of Britons (57%) and Americans (58%).

The picture is similar when it comes to people’s quality of life. With only 37 per cent of Britons rating mobile phones as essential or very important to their quality of life, the UK is among a group of industrialised nations that also includes the USA (39%), France (27%), and Germany (28%), where attachment to mobile phones is less intense.

Doug Miller, GlobeScan Chairman said: “Mobile phones are widely seen by citizens as playing important roles in our economies and personal lives. But in developing nations, with their young populations and absence of well developed land-line networks, the mobile phone is seen as particularly essential.”

A total of 21,558 citizens across 22 countries were interviewed face-to-face or by telephone between July 3, 2011 and September 16, 2011. Polling was conducted for BBC World Service by the international polling firm GlobeScan and its research partners in each country. In eight of the 21 countries, the sample was limited to major urban areas. The margin of error per country ranges from +/- 2.0 to 4.4 per cent, 19 times out of 20.

For more details, please visit www.GlobeScan.com.