Who publishes the index
The About webpage names the two people accountable for the index.
Methodology · 2026 edition
How is the Bahamas Digital Readiness Index calculated?
Each business in the index gets a score out of 100 for its Four Digital Doors, read from public sources, with points for open doors and passed checks set by industry.
Who the 2026 index covers, and when it was true
The index shows how the Bahamian businesses it covers can be found and reached online, as of a stated date. Institutions can cite it, owners can look up their own doors, and later editions can be compared with it where methods match.
Each business’s 2026 score records the doors found open in readings up to the reference date, and the checks those doors passed. The reference date is 13 July 2026. The score is locked with the 2026 edition, so it stays the same when the business opens or closes a door. A later look at the doors is a fresh reading, and the score webpage shows the newest one with its date.
The index set out to include each business its sources could find in the industries it covers. No authoritative count of Bahamian businesses was available to measure against, so the index cannot say what share of them it holds.
- Businesses scored
- 2,600
- Industries covered
- 8
- Businesses scored by island
-
- Nassau / Paradise Island 2,325
- Grand Bahama 239
- Abaco 22
- Eleuthera, Harbour Island and five other islands 14
- Edition and reference date
- 2026 · 13 July 2026
- How to cite this index
- DDigiLeads. Bahamas Digital Readiness Index, 2026 edition, reference date 13 July 2026. https://bdri.bs
Records of the 2026 edition
What counts as open on each of the Four Digital Doors
“Not found” means not found in public sources, not confirmed missing.
-
Google Business Profile
Open when a public Google listing can be found on Search and Maps, claimed or not.
- Claimed by the business
- Shows a star rating
- Has at least one review
- Newest review less than 12 months old
Source for the 2026 index: Google’s own business data.
-
Website
Open when a live website loads for a visitor.
- Secure connection (https)
- Works on a phone
Source for the 2026 index: an automated check of each site, and a look at whether it belongs to the business.
-
Facebook Page
Open when the business has an active Facebook Page. A personal profile does not count.
- A post in the 90 days before the reading
- At least one follower
Source for the 2026 index: Facebook, read in July 2026.
Fresh readings The Page is read as any visitor sees it, which may show only some of its posts.
-
WhatsApp
Open in the 2026 index when a phone number listed for the business was registered on WhatsApp.
- Account type is WhatsApp Business
Source for the 2026 index: phone numbers from public listings. Each was checked for WhatsApp with CheckNumber.ai, a number-checking service.
Fresh readings Open when the business publishes a WhatsApp link or number on its website, Google listing, Facebook Page or Instagram. The number is never messaged.
Fine print for each door, and how many businesses each fact covers
Google Business Profile: for “Newest review less than 12 months old”, the 12 months run back from the reference date. “Has at least one review” passes when the review count is above zero, and “Shows a star rating” when a rating shows. Some listings were carried over from the first reading or from an earlier listing record. The second reading found 1,098 listings on Google, and the claim status of 5 listings was read again afterwards.
Website: a dead link, an unreachable domain and a placeholder all count as not open. So do a “coming soon” webpage, a redirect to another business or to a social media profile, and a certificate error. A live booking-platform profile counts as open. “Works on a phone” passes when the site’s code includes a phone layout setting. It is a check of the code, not a test on a phone.
Facebook Page: a personal profile, a deleted Page and a broken link do not count as open. A parent or brand Page that serves a local business counts as open. For 10 businesses found to use a brand Page, its posts and followers counted as checks that could not be read.
WhatsApp: the numbers on record were checked in March 2026 and again in July 2026. The check reports whether a number is a Business account. The service’s own definition of a Business account is not on record.
| Google Business Profile listings found | 1,574 |
|---|---|
| Listings claimed by the business | 981 |
| Websites open | 993 |
| Websites with a secure connection | 892 |
| Facebook Pages open | 862 |
| WhatsApp numbers open | 590 |
| WhatsApp Business accounts | 311 |
| Personal WhatsApp accounts | 279 |
A score is built only by adding points
A business’s Bahamas Digital Readiness Index score is the sum of the points it earns at the Four Digital Doors.
Illustrative example, a made-up restaurant with three doors open. Google Business Profile 28.0 points, Facebook Page 25.2, WhatsApp 21.0, Website 0.0. Score 74.2 out of 100.
An open door earns points for being open, plus a smaller number for each check it passes. In every industry, a door’s points for being open are worth more than all of its checks together. A door that is not open earns nothing, and nothing is ever subtracted. A check that could not be read scores the same as a failed check. Each business is also placed in one of four stages, read from which doors are open and never from the score.
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Each industry weights the doors by how its customers find, trust and contact a business
Each industry puts each of the Four Digital Doors in one of three classes.
- A Required door is central to how the industry’s customers find, trust and contact a business.
- A Recommended door is useful, but customers can still find and contact the business through its other open doors.
- An Optional door is one the industry’s customers rarely use to find or choose a business.
Within an industry’s table, a Required door carries the most points and an Optional door the fewest.
DDigiLeads set the classes from its own review of published research on how each industry’s customers find and contact businesses. The research it reviewed includes data about The Bahamas and the wider Caribbean, and studies from the United States. The classes were set before the 2026 scores were worked out.
Each number is a door’s full points, for being open plus its checks, both listed per industry below. Every row adds up to 100.
| Google Business Profile | Website | Facebook Page | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Restaurants | 28 Required | 16 Recommended | 28 Required | 28 Required |
| Tourism | 28 Required | 28 Required | 16 Recommended | 28 Required |
| Salons and Beauty | 28 Required | 16 Recommended | 28 Required | 28 Required |
| Auto Services | 34 Required | 19 Recommended | 13 Optional | 34 Required |
| Professional Services | 30 Required | 30 Required | 10 Optional | 30 Required |
| Retail | 19 Recommended | 13 Optional | 34 Required | 34 Required |
| Home Services | 34 Required | 19 Recommended | 13 Optional | 34 Required |
| Creative Services | 21 Recommended | 37 Required | 21 Recommended | 21 Recommended |
The weighting tables cannot be used to redo a business’s own score. The site shows a business’s doors as last read, not the check results its 2026 score was worked out from.
The weighting tables of the 2026 edition, in points How each industry stands on each door
Why each industry’s doors are classed this way
- Restaurants
- Required: Google Business Profile, Facebook Page and WhatsApp. Visitors look for a place to eat on Google. Locals check Facebook for menus and specials, and order takeout by WhatsApp.
- Tourism
- Required: Google Business Profile, Website and WhatsApp. Visitors plan trips on Google and check a hotel’s or tour operator’s own website to see that it is real. Tour operators, boat charters and rental hosts take bookings and keep in touch with guests by WhatsApp, which works across borders.
- Salons and Beauty
- Required: Google Business Profile, Facebook Page and WhatsApp. Clients find a salon on Google Maps and see its recent work on social media, where the index reads the Facebook Page. They book and change appointments by WhatsApp.
- Auto Services
- Required: Google Business Profile and WhatsApp. When a car breaks down, the driver looks up a mechanic nearby on Google and calls. The driver then sends photos by WhatsApp and gets back a quote and a time.
- Professional Services
- Required: Google Business Profile, Website and WhatsApp. Clients check a firm’s Google listing and reviews, then its website, before they get in touch. Bahamians usually reach a local business on WhatsApp, so a firm that is not on it is harder to contact.
- Retail
- Required: Facebook Page and WhatsApp. Shoppers browse a shop’s products on its Facebook Page, then ask about stock, order and arrange delivery by WhatsApp.
- Home Services
- Required: Google Business Profile and WhatsApp. When something breaks at home, the homeowner looks up a plumber or electrician nearby on Google and calls. They then send a photo of the problem by WhatsApp and arrange a quote and a visit.
- Creative Services
- Required: Website. Clients often find a photographer or designer on social media, then get in touch through the website that shows all their work.
The reasons draw on sources such as the Central Bank of The Bahamas’ December 2025 policy presentation, DataReportal’s 2026 report on The Bahamas and Hope Research Group’s 2026 report on Caribbean media use.
For Creative Services, Google Business Profile is Recommended as a judgement call. Some creative businesses, such as event photographers, are found by searching nearby. Others are often looked up by name, so the door sits between Required and Optional.
The point values in the weighting tables are design choices.
Every check’s points for each industry, and a worked example
In every industry, a door’s check points are split among its checks in the same proportions. The tables differ only in how many points each door carries.
| Check | Points |
|---|---|
| Google Business Profile Required | Door total 28 |
| Points for being open | 21 |
| Claimed by the business | 3.5 |
| Shows a star rating | 1.05 |
| Has at least one review | 1.05 |
| Newest review less than 12 months old | 1.4 |
| Website Recommended | Door total 16 |
| Points for being open | 13 |
| Secure connection (https) | 1.8 |
| Works on a phone | 1.2 |
| Facebook Page Required | Door total 28 |
| Points for being open | 21 |
| A post in the 90 days before the reading | 4.2 |
| At least one follower | 2.8 |
| WhatsApp Required | Door total 28 |
| Points for being open | 21 |
| Account type is WhatsApp Business | 7 |
| Industry total | 100 |
| Check | Points |
|---|---|
| Google Business Profile Required | Door total 28 |
| Points for being open | 21 |
| Claimed by the business | 3.5 |
| Shows a star rating | 1.05 |
| Has at least one review | 1.05 |
| Newest review less than 12 months old | 1.4 |
| Website Required | Door total 28 |
| Points for being open | 21 |
| Secure connection (https) | 4.2 |
| Works on a phone | 2.8 |
| Facebook Page Recommended | Door total 16 |
| Points for being open | 13 |
| A post in the 90 days before the reading | 1.8 |
| At least one follower | 1.2 |
| WhatsApp Required | Door total 28 |
| Points for being open | 21 |
| Account type is WhatsApp Business | 7 |
| Industry total | 100 |
| Check | Points |
|---|---|
| Google Business Profile Required | Door total 28 |
| Points for being open | 21 |
| Claimed by the business | 3.5 |
| Shows a star rating | 1.05 |
| Has at least one review | 1.05 |
| Newest review less than 12 months old | 1.4 |
| Website Recommended | Door total 16 |
| Points for being open | 13 |
| Secure connection (https) | 1.8 |
| Works on a phone | 1.2 |
| Facebook Page Required | Door total 28 |
| Points for being open | 21 |
| A post in the 90 days before the reading | 4.2 |
| At least one follower | 2.8 |
| WhatsApp Required | Door total 28 |
| Points for being open | 21 |
| Account type is WhatsApp Business | 7 |
| Industry total | 100 |
| Check | Points |
|---|---|
| Google Business Profile Required | Door total 34 |
| Points for being open | 26 |
| Claimed by the business | 4 |
| Shows a star rating | 1.2 |
| Has at least one review | 1.2 |
| Newest review less than 12 months old | 1.6 |
| Website Recommended | Door total 19 |
| Points for being open | 15 |
| Secure connection (https) | 2.4 |
| Works on a phone | 1.6 |
| Facebook Page Optional | Door total 13 |
| Points for being open | 10 |
| A post in the 90 days before the reading | 1.8 |
| At least one follower | 1.2 |
| WhatsApp Required | Door total 34 |
| Points for being open | 26 |
| Account type is WhatsApp Business | 8 |
| Industry total | 100 |
| Check | Points |
|---|---|
| Google Business Profile Required | Door total 30 |
| Points for being open | 23 |
| Claimed by the business | 3.5 |
| Shows a star rating | 1.05 |
| Has at least one review | 1.05 |
| Newest review less than 12 months old | 1.4 |
| Website Required | Door total 30 |
| Points for being open | 23 |
| Secure connection (https) | 4.2 |
| Works on a phone | 2.8 |
| Facebook Page Optional | Door total 10 |
| Points for being open | 8 |
| A post in the 90 days before the reading | 1.2 |
| At least one follower | 0.8 |
| WhatsApp Required | Door total 30 |
| Points for being open | 23 |
| Account type is WhatsApp Business | 7 |
| Industry total | 100 |
| Check | Points |
|---|---|
| Google Business Profile Recommended | Door total 19 |
| Points for being open | 15 |
| Claimed by the business | 2 |
| Shows a star rating | 0.6 |
| Has at least one review | 0.6 |
| Newest review less than 12 months old | 0.8 |
| Website Optional | Door total 13 |
| Points for being open | 10 |
| Secure connection (https) | 1.8 |
| Works on a phone | 1.2 |
| Facebook Page Required | Door total 34 |
| Points for being open | 26 |
| A post in the 90 days before the reading | 4.8 |
| At least one follower | 3.2 |
| WhatsApp Required | Door total 34 |
| Points for being open | 26 |
| Account type is WhatsApp Business | 8 |
| Industry total | 100 |
| Check | Points |
|---|---|
| Google Business Profile Required | Door total 34 |
| Points for being open | 26 |
| Claimed by the business | 4 |
| Shows a star rating | 1.2 |
| Has at least one review | 1.2 |
| Newest review less than 12 months old | 1.6 |
| Website Recommended | Door total 19 |
| Points for being open | 15 |
| Secure connection (https) | 2.4 |
| Works on a phone | 1.6 |
| Facebook Page Optional | Door total 13 |
| Points for being open | 10 |
| A post in the 90 days before the reading | 1.8 |
| At least one follower | 1.2 |
| WhatsApp Required | Door total 34 |
| Points for being open | 26 |
| Account type is WhatsApp Business | 8 |
| Industry total | 100 |
| Check | Points |
|---|---|
| Google Business Profile Recommended | Door total 21 |
| Points for being open | 16 |
| Claimed by the business | 2.5 |
| Shows a star rating | 0.75 |
| Has at least one review | 0.75 |
| Newest review less than 12 months old | 1 |
| Website Required | Door total 37 |
| Points for being open | 28 |
| Secure connection (https) | 5.4 |
| Works on a phone | 3.6 |
| Facebook Page Recommended | Door total 21 |
| Points for being open | 16 |
| A post in the 90 days before the reading | 3 |
| At least one follower | 2 |
| WhatsApp Recommended | Door total 21 |
| Points for being open | 16 |
| Account type is WhatsApp Business | 5 |
| Industry total | 100 |
Restaurants and Salons and Beauty use the same table, and so do Auto Services and Home Services.
A Required door’s full points, for being open and for its checks, are more than all of its industry’s checks put together. So a business missing a Required door cannot outscore one with every door open, however many checks it passes.
Illustrative example: a made-up restaurant
- Google Business Profile open, all four checks passed:
- 28.0
- Facebook Page open, a recent post, no follower recorded:
- 25.2
- WhatsApp open on a personal account:
- 21.0
- Website Not found:
- 0.0
Score: 74.2
This table is the recipe for every 2026 score.
A stage compares open doors with the doors an industry requires
No Doors Open means no door is open, and Doors Opening means at least one is open but not every Required door. Expected Doors Open means every Required door is open but not all four, and All Doors Open means all four are open. A stage is not a band of scores, so the score ranges overlap. A business in Doors Opening that passes every check can outscore one in Expected Doors Open that has only its Required doors open and passes no checks. The score webpage shows a business’s 2026 stage with its 2026 score, even if a newer reading finds different doors open.
Stage rules, with 2026 counts and score ranges
| Stage | Doors open | Businesses in 2026 | Score range |
|---|---|---|---|
| No Doors Open | None | 552 | 0.0 |
| Doors Opening | At least one, but not every Required door | 1,781 | 8.8 to 72.0 |
| Expected Doors Open | Every Required door, but not all four | 155 | 33.4 to 90.0 |
| All Doors Open | All four | 112 | 82.2 to 100.0 |
The doors were checked as the list was built, then read again in July
The list was built mainly from BahamasLocal.com, a Bahamian business directory, which supplied 82% of the records collected. The rest came from Google’s own business data. Duplicates and businesses found closed for good were taken out.
- Event
- Reading pass, drawn to scale
- The reference date
- Continues after the edition
- Not to scale after the reference date
-
February to March 2026
List built
Each business was searched for on Facebook and checked for a website and a WhatsApp number.
-
First reading of the doors
The results became the first record of each business’s doors.
-
One record removed
A record filed under the wrong industry came off the list.
-
A study of customer reviews
For a separate study, 14,352 written reviews of 560 restaurant and tourism businesses were grouped by theme. What they say is not scored.
-
2 to 13 July 2026
Second reading of the doors
The newer reading was used wherever a fact was read twice, and any other fact kept its first reading.
-
Reference date
The 2026 scores were worked out afterwards from the door facts as they stood on this date.
-
Fresh readings
Doors can be read again after the reference date.
Records of how the 2026 list was built and read What the 2026 index found
How the list was cleaned, with the counts
- Records collected
- 2,604
- Removed, filed under the wrong industry
- 1
- Records reviewed
- 2,603
- Removed, a duplicate record
- 1
- Removed, closed for good
- 2
- Businesses scored
- 2,600
Before the edition was locked, 9 Google listings belonging to businesses abroad were cleared, and 3 website links to a directory listing were struck.
The list came in two loads. The February load drew on both sources, and the March load on BahamasLocal.com.
The score counts open doors and passed checks, and nothing else
The index does not score how a website looks, what a Facebook Page posts or how WhatsApp is used. Nor does it score how complete a Google Business Profile is, such as its photos or categories. It cannot see anything offline, such as in-person service, price or word of mouth.
A fresh reading of a Google Business Profile also collects whether hours are listed, how many photos there are and how the star ratings split. None of these carry points, and any that could not be read is shown as not read, never as a no. Such a fact can join a future edition’s score only once it can be read for at least 80% of the businesses it applies to.
- Read, not scored
-
- Online booking and online shops
- Google Posts and owner replies, from a fresh reading, for some businesses
- Not read
-
- What a WhatsApp profile says, such as hours or a catalogue
- Never judged
-
- Social platforms other than Facebook
- Whether contact details agree across doors
Doors are read again between locked editions
The 2026 edition has its own report.
On the score webpage, an owner can ask for a fresh reading with “Update your business details”.
DDigiLeads, a Bahamian digital-growth firm, runs the index. Fresh readings are gathered by automated reads and checked automatically before they are shown. A person at DDigiLeads reviews the ones that need it.
The emailed breakdown, readings after the index, and a check of the arithmetic
An owner can ask for a breakdown by email, giving an email address and one goal. Within 48 hours the doors are read again and the breakdown is emailed, with the reading’s date. It explains the doors shown on the score webpage and lists the steps toward that goal, in order. It is prepared with automated help and checked automatically, and a person at DDigiLeads reviews any breakdown that needs it. It carries no point arithmetic, and because the doors were read again it may not match the 2026 score.
A business first read after the 2026 index has no 2026 score. It is shown as assessed in the month and year it was read. Any number shown for it is a current estimate, never the published index.
On 15 July 2026, a separate automated reader ran a blind recompute. DDigiLeads set it up and gave it no access to the scoring code. With only the method and five businesses’ check results, it worked out all five scores exactly as the scoring code had. On 22 September 2026, a second run on five other businesses, using this webpage’s weighting tables, matched all five published 2026 scores.
Where does your business stand?
Type a business name to see its doors, its stage and, if it is in the 2026 index, its score.
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