Telephone lines per 100 inhabitants in east and west Europe and the U.S. 1979

Between the 1950s and 1970s, electronic telecommunications overtook traditional postal correspondence to become the primary form of communication in the developed world. In several European countries, such as Denmark, Italy, and the Netherlands, postal correspondence more than doubled in these decades; however, the number of telephone lines increased by more than a factor of five. Overall, there were approximately 30 telephone lines per hundred inhabitants in the European Communities countries* in 1979, which was more than four times the rate in Central and Eastern Europe, but not even half the rate in the United States.