99 Key Internet Statistics

As we move further into the digital age, the internet continues to grow and becomes more essential to personal and business life.

To provide some insight into the current state of the internet in 2023, we’re presenting 99 key statistics and facts about the internet.

Key Takeaways:

  • The number of internet users is growing annually
  • Cybercrime keeps growing with the internet
  • Average internet user is spending more time than ever on the internet

General Internet Statistics

Most Popular Languages

English Language Websites Make Up 25% of the Internet

English is the most popular language used on the internet accounting for slightly more than a quarter (25.9%) of all websites online. Mandarin Chinese is the second most popular language (19.4%), and Spanish is third (8%).

Number of Internet Users

Internet usage

5.3 Billion Active Internet Users

An estimated two-thirds (66%) of the global population is now actively using the internet. This is an extra 400,000 internet users over the previous year’s (2021) estimated total.

Number of Internet Users

8.2% Growth in # of Internet Users

The number of internet users has increased every single year since the internet was first invented. Some years see more users added than others, but if we average that number across the entire lifespan of the internet so far, we have ~8% growth every year.

Internet Had 50 Million Users Within 4 Years

The internet achieved the remarkable feat of attaining more than 50 million users in just 4 years. To help explain how incredible that is, we can compare it with another form of communication technology. After the invention of the radio, it would take 38 years for it to reach the hands of 50 million users. 

China Has the Most Internet Users

With a population of more than 1.4 billion, it comes as no surprise that China has the largest number of internet users of any country in the world with more than 1 billion users. India follows in second place, and the US is third.

Websites & Emails

198.4 Million Active Websites

There are close to 2 billion websites registered around the world, and that number rises rapidly every day. However, most of these websites aren’t active and haven’t been for some time. The number of websites that are actually being used is only around 20% of the total number of websites created.

23 Years to Reach 850 Million Websites

The internet was first introduced in 1991 and 23 years later (2014), there were over 850 million websites. In the 9 years since that milestone, the number of registered websites doubled to more than 1.93 billion.  

4.3 Billion Email Accounts

By the end of 2021, there were 4.1 billion registered email accounts. This was an increase of over 100 million on the previous year’s statistics. With growth in this area being fairly consistent, it is expected that that number will have risen to more than 4.3 billion by the end of 2023.

333 Billion Emails per Day

The number of emails sent and received per day increased by 13 billion (~4.1%) over the 2021 average of 320 billion per day. Email is an integral part of our daily lives and essential to the global economy, as such the daily average is expected to continue rising with estimates suggesting that 2023 could see an average of 347 billion per day.

Internet Speeds

81.46MBPS & 34.51MBPS

The global average download speeds of a fixed broadband line and mobile internet are 81.46MBPS and 34.51MBPS respectively. This is an average that’s taken across all available data, so the average speed available to users will differ from region to region.

Most Popular Websites & Apps

Google Has 92.7% Share of Search Market

There are several search engines that internet users could utilize; however, Google (by Alphabet) is their preferred choice by some distance. The second most popular search engine is Bing (by Microsoft) with a measly 2.8% of the market share.

Google Has 92.7% Share of Search Market

Google Is the Most Popular Website

When measured by the number of visitors a website receives, Google is the most popular website on the internet across the world. With ~97% market share of the internet search engine space and with people using search engines as their primary means of locating websites, it’s fairly easy to see why Google is the most popular website in the world by visitor numbers.

The Top 10 Websites Include 4 Search Engines & 3 Social Networks

The top 10 most popular website in the world includes the search engines Google (#1), Baidu (#7), Yandex (#8), and Yahoo! (#9), as well as the social networks Facebook (#3), Twitter (#4), and Instagram (#5).

The Top 10 Websites Include 4 Search Engines & 3 Social Networks

WhatsApp Is the Most Popular Internet Messaging App

Internet messaging service apps are most people’s preferred means of communication today and there are several options to choose from. The most popular of these is WhatsApp which has more than 2 billion active users and is especially popular throughout the EU and UK.

Internet History

The World Wide Web Was Created in 1989

The World Wide Web (www), the basic structure that the internet we know today was built on to, was created in 1989 by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the same man who would go on to create the very first website.

The First Website Ever Was Info.cern.ch

The first website ever was made by British physicist Sir Tim Berners-Lee on August 6, 1991. The website was built to help scientists working for CERN and at the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) to collaborate more effectively.

The Search Engine Was “Archie Query Form”

Launched in 1990, Archie Query Form was the first search engine available to internet users, but it probably wouldn’t be recognizable as a search engine for those of you that have only ever used Google. 

Archie Query Form indexed File Transfer (FTP) websites that contained downloadable files. The site’s search results didn’t even make webpages available to the user, it only displayed the downloadable content that the sites contained.

MSG Is First Email Management Program

Created all the way back in 1975, MSG was the world’s first email management system that facilitated sending, replying, and filing options. It was created by computer programmer John Vittal. 

The First Internet Guide Was Released in 1992

Although it would be another few years before the internet reached popular consciousness, the very first commercial book written about the internet was published in 1992. The book was written by Ed Krol, a University of Illinois alumni and professor who titled his book, The Whole Internet (User’s Guide and Catalog).

Internet Archive Catalogs the Internet’s History

One of the great abilities of the internet is the ability to add, edit, update, and remove content as and when is relevant. Unfortunately, this means that some of the things that have been placed on the internet will eventually be gone forever. Internet Archive is a website that attempts to catalog the entire internet and its history.

The First Internet-Distributed Virus

One of the first viruses to be distributed through the internet was the Morris Worm on 2nd November 1988. It was created by the graduate student Robert Morris while studying at Cornell University simply because he wished to see if it was possible. 

In a sign that he knew the scale of the damage it could potentially cause, he chose to release it at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) instead of Cornell so that investigators would be inclined to believe the culprit attended MIT. The worm affected ~6,000 of the ~60,000 hosts on the internet at the time.

Queen Elizabeth II Sends an Email

On the 26th of March 1976, Queen Elizabeth II visited a telecommunications research center in England and sent an email using a computer network that would later morph into the internet we know and understand today. This made Queen Elizabeth II the first royal to send an email.

First Commercial Internet Provider Is Born

The first commercial provider of internet access is world.std.com. Created in 1990, it gives the general public access to the internet via dial-up for the first time.

“Surfing the Internet” Is Coined

The author Jean Armour Polly was a key figure in popularizing the phrase “surfing the internet.” Although the phrase had been used by others previously, Jean Armour Polly’s 1992 University of Minnesota news bulletin article, “Surfing the INTERNET,” really helped bring the phrase into the public’s consciousness.

US White House Goes Online

US President Bill Clinton and Vice-President Al Gore were the first members of a sitting US government to have public-facing email addresses. For the first time, the US public could discuss their concerns and issues with elected officials via email when President Bill Clinton and Vice-President Al Gore were issued with public-facing government email addresses (president@whitehouse.gov & vice-president@whitehouse.gov). 

Deep Web Statistics

7.5k Terabytes of Deep Web Information

The internet has given people access to a wealth of information through a variety of search engines. What you may not realize is that search engines don’t index deep web pages, and so the average internet user will only ever access the surface web containing just 19 terabytes of information. The deep web contains ~40,000% more data than the surface web.

The Dark Web Is the Deep Web’s Troublesome Brother

Just like the deep web, the dark web won’t be found using a search engine since it isn’t part of the surface web. The dark web requires special software (such as Tor) in order for users to get access to it. The dark web is famous for hosting websites like The Silk Road, a site that facilitated the sale of legal, illegal, and illicit items.

Business Internet Statistics

Cyber Security Statistics

Cybercrime Costs $1 Trillion

Every year cybercrime costs the global economy an estimated $1 trillion. This figure includes losses from different types of cyberattacks, such as ransomware, phishing, identity theft, and other types of online fraud. 

The $1 trillion figure also includes losses caused by reputational damage, legal fees, and the costs associated with implementing cybersecurity measures. These losses are predicted to grow to $10.5 trillion by 2025.

$4.35 Million per Security Breach

The average cost of one incident of a cybersecurity breach is $4.35 million, an increase of $490,000 from the previous year. Unfortunately, if your business is in America, that cost doubles to $9.44 million per breach.

9 Months to Contain a Breach

It took businesses an average of 9 months, or 277 days to identify and then contain a breach in their security. Studies by the technology corporation IBM show that if businesses were able to reduce breach containment time by 77 days (to 200 days) businesses would save approximately $1.12 million per breach.

Stolen & Compromised Credentials Are Most Common Breach

Stolen and compromised credentials are the most common type of cybersecurity breach, accounting for about 19% of breaches. This type of breach also takes the longest for cybersecurity departments to identify and fix, taking an average of 327 days to resolve.

Phishing Attacks Are Most Costly Breach

Per cybersecurity incident, phishing attacks cost the most, with an average of $4.91 million per breach. They are also the second most common type of breach, making up 16% of security breaches. The second most expensive type of breach is when a business email is compromised as it costs an average of $4.89 million per incident.

Advertising, Big Data, Internet of Things, & Cloud Computing

Online Advertising Market Worth $600+ Billion

Advertising through internet-connected devices, (computers, mobile, and smart devices) is now valued at more than $600 billion worldwide and accounts for 69% of all media ad expenditure. 

As the number of people that access the internet continues to grow, it’s expected that the online advertising market will grow with it. Current estimates predict that online advertising will be valued at approximately $680 billion by the end of 2023. 

Cloud Computing Is Valued at $480 Billion

Cloud computing services have become essential to businesses that want a way of processing, storing, and managing data remotely. The market value has grown to $480 billion (up from $405 billion the previous year) and the continued digitization of business and growing numbers of internet users mean this figure is expected to hit $1.7 trillion by 2029. 

Big Data Expected to Be Worth $250+ Billion in 3 Years

Data collection is a practice that most average users only tolerate because they have to and there is a growing concern in the public that businesses are collecting too much of their customers’ data. However, the market value of big data is expected to continue growing at a compound annual growth rate of 11% and be worth $273.4 Billion by 2026.

Internet of Things (IoT) Spending Grew 21.5%

Although lower than the 23% that the market was previously predicted to increase by this year, 21.5% is still significant growth. This means business spending in this area reached $201 billion this year. Growth rates in this area are expected to continue again this year and reach approximately $240 billion.

Internet User Demographics

Internet Users by Age

One-Third of Internet Users Are Millennials

Although the internet is valued by every age group, millennials make up the largest proportion of internet users globally. 32% of internet users are aged from 25-34 years old, and 19% of users are 35-44 years old. Together, they account for slightly over half (51%) of all internet users.

Largest Internet Usage Penetration Rates in European 15–24-Year-Olds.

Around the world, the 15-24 age group uses the internet more than other groups. In Europe, this age group has a much stronger presence than in other regions, with 98% of European 15-24-year-olds actively using the internet. For comparison, the global rate for the same age group is 75%.

Internet User by Gender

Men Access the Internet More

When it comes to gender representation amongst internet users, most of the world’s advanced economies have roughly equal representation. However, there are some strong differences in regions such as Africa and the Middle East, which affect the global averages quite significantly. 

All-in-all it means that globally, 70% of the male population and 63% of the female population have access to and use the internet.

Men Access the Internet More

Internet User by Region

Asia Has over 2.9 Billion Internet Users

The Asian continent contains the two most populated countries in the world (India and China). As such, it should come as no surprise to anyone that Asia has the largest number of active internet users of any region. Europe comes in a distant second place with 800 million internet users.

5 Countries Have Almost 100% Internet Penetration Rate

Denmark, Ireland, Kuwait, the UAE, and Qatar governments and populations have fully embraced the internet and have the highest rates of internet penetration to show for it, with 98-99% of their populations able to access the internet.

0% Internet Penetration for North Korea

Perhaps unsurprisingly, North Korea has the lowest internet penetration rate of any country in the world with an official number of 0 internet users. Other countries with the lowest internet penetration rates include Eritrea (8%) and South Sudan (8.3%).

Africa Had More Than 13,000% Growth in 3 Years

The African region’s internet user numbers grew by the largest amount of all regions across the last 3 years with a 13,233% increase. The Middle East placed second with less than half the growth (6,194%). 

54% of Internet Users Are in Asia

More than half of the world’s internet users (54.2%) are located in Asia. This makes sense when you consider that Asia consists of 54.9% of the planet’s total population. By contrast, Europe accounts for 10.6% of the planet’s total population but accounts for 13.9% of internet users.

User Internet Preferences and Habits

Browser Preference

Chrome Browser Is Preferred By 66% of Internet Users

Alphabet’s Chrome browser is the preferred internet browser among users by a large margin with a whopping 65.7% of internet users choosing it. The second most popular browser (Safari) is used by 18.78% of internet users, and the third most popular browser (Microsoft’s Edge) doesn’t even reach double figures with just 4.28% of users choosing it as their primary browser.

Internet Explorer Is Still Being Used

Despite Microsoft releasing Edge as a direct replacement for Internet Explorer in 2015, there are still people out there that are choosing Internet Explorer as their primary internet browser, 0.25% of them. 0.25% may not sound like many but that accounts for a little over 13 million internet users.

More Than 25% of US Internet Users Use Ad Blockers

It’s bad news for marketing teams as the latest estimates and surveys show that 27% of the American public have ad blocker extensions installed on their favorite internet browser.

Daily Usage

Over 6 Hours a Day Online

The average amount of time that a person spends on the internet has now increased to 6 hours and 54 minutes per day. This is an increase of 4 minutes per day over the previous year. 

When added up across the world’s entire internet user population, this equates to a staggering 5 billion additional days of internet use in the past year.

Internet Device Preference

Smartphones Used for 80% of Time Spent on Social Media

With people feeling the need to periodically check their social accounts throughout the day (even while they’re meant to be working), it should surprise no one that all the major social networks report that users access their social accounts through their phones 80% of the time.

Popular Online Activities

Social Networks Are Where People Spend the Most Time

It may come as no surprise that people spend the largest portion of their online time on social networks. The average user spends around 2 hours and 20 minutes per day on any social network with much of this done through mobile.

An Hour a Day Watching Online Video Content

Video content is some of the most popular content available on the internet. In fact, video content is so popular, 45% of all internet users spend at least 1 hour a day watching online video content and 85% of users watch online content every month.

4 Billion Snaps per Day

Snapchat is one of the most popular messaging apps in the world, with more than 360 million users. Those 360 million users send an average total of 4 billion snaps every day and they spend an average of 25 minutes per day using the service.

14 Minutes on Pinterest

Pinterest is a very popular image-sharing social network that’s used by over 300 million users. The average Pinterest user spends around 14 minutes of their total time online per day engaging with it. 

600 Million Bloggers

Internet users love sharing stories, tips, tricks, life events, and more with people around the world. Blogging is one way that they can do that. Today there are more than 600 million active blogs, and there are 7 million blog posts published every day.

1 out of 3 People Shops Online

The number of people using the internet for online shopping has increased to 2.64 billion which is roughly 33% of the global population and a 3% increase over the previous year. This trend is expected to continue as internet penetration continues to grow worldwide.

84% of Users Search 3 Times a Day

Most websites and content that internet users interact with are indexed and found via search engines so understanding how to use a search engine effectively is essential to the average user. Today the average user will use Google three or more times in a single day.

99% of Consumers Check Emails Daily

Highlighting the importance of email as a communication tool to both individuals and businesses, some surveys show that 99% of internet users check their email every day. Surveys that focus on individuals of working age and not currently studying in school show a much higher rate of email account engagement than younger and older demographics. 

26.7% of World’s Population Is an Internet Shopper

Slightly more than a quarter of the entire population of the world have now used the internet to make a purchase. For some regions like the U.S., this figure is significantly higher with 76% of adults reporting using the internet for shopping.

Online Gamers Make Up 40% of Global Population 

A little more than 60% of the world is now online, and 40% of the world is choosing to use the internet for online gaming. This encompasses all types of online gaming, both casual and competitive, as well as through a variety of devices including mobile phones, computers, and game consoles.

2 Hours per Day on Messaging Services

The average internet user is estimated to spend around 2 hours per day on internet-enabled messaging services, such as WhatsApp, WeChat, or Telegram. Although users often don’t think of using these services as “using the internet,” the service would in fact be useless without internet access, so these messaging platforms contribute significantly to a user’s total daily internet use.

Online Education Keeps Growing

With the growing availability of reliable internet around the world, online education has become a realistic option for millions (if not billions) of people. As demand for this area of the internet has grown so too has the number and types of online educational courses and platforms available to users. By 2025, the global market for online education is expected to reach $325 billion. 

Internet Connection & Traffic Statistics

Internet Service Provider Statistics

Comcast Is Largest U.S. ISP

Comcast is the largest internet service provider in the U.S. by subscriber numbers. With over 32 million subscribers Comcast can claim to be responsible for fixed-line broadband service for around 40% of all broadband internet subscribers in the U.S.

China Telecom Is Largest Supplier of Internet Service in the World

More than 350 million subscribers mean that no other company can come close to the Chinese state-backed telecommunications company. The second largest ISP in the world (by subscriber number) is NTT Communications with just 126 million subscribers.

Internet Cost

Syria Has Cheapest Internet in the World

Costing an average of $2.15 per month, Syria has the cheapest fixed-line internet anywhere in the world. The others in the top 5 cheapest places are Sudan, Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia.

$430 per Month for Internet in Burundi

The title of the country with the most expensive internet in the world goes to Burundi with its eye-watering $430 per month average. The other 4 countries with the most expensive fixed-line internet are Sierra Leone, Brunei Darussalam, British Virgin Islands, and Turks and Caicos Islands.

Website and Domain Statistics

YouTube Has 2.3 Billion Active Monthly Users

YouTube is the most popular video-sharing website in the world, with more than 2.3 billion unique users engaging with it every month for an average of 40 minutes per day.

500 Hours of Video Uploaded per Minute

Video is some of the most popular content on the internet (accounting for ~80% of all traffic) and to help prove this point YouTube statistics show that users are uploading the equivalent of 500 hours of video per minute or 720,000 hours of new video content every day. 

Facebook Is the Most Popular Social Network

Facebook is the most popular of the social networks and has approximately 2.6 billion active monthly users that spend an average of 58 minutes per day on the platform.

Most Popular Domain Base Is .com

The.com domain base remains the most popular in the world with ~160 million of the ~350 million domain names registered using it. The second most popular domain base is .tk.

Domain# of Domains (in millions)
.com158.6
.tk27.5
.cn24.1
.de16.5
.net13.5
.uk11.8
.org10.1
.nl6.0
.icu5.9
.ru5.7

China Has 8.8 Million Registered Domain Names

China has the largest number of registered domain names of any country in the world with 8.8 million. That’s approximately 34% of the total share. For comparison, the US has 3.6 million registered domains which account for 14.04% of the global share.

WordPress Used by 43% of Websites

WordPress was one of the first companies to offer internet users a simple-to-use set of tools to build and maintain an online business and website. Today, that translates to nearly half of all websites using WordPress as their content management system.

3.5 Billion Searches a Day

With ~92% of the search market, Google comfortably handles more search queries every day than all the other major search engines combined. Google handles an average of 3.5 billion searches every day, which means Google handles roughly 1.2 trillion searches per year.

Website Building & Hosting Statistics

Most Popular Website Hosting Services

Getting your website online will usually entail using a website hosting service and there are many companies to choose from, each offering its own benefits. The most popular website hosting service in the world is currently GoDaddy, with various studies placing its hosting market share between 7% and 20%.

Web Hosting ServiceMarket Share (%)
GoDaddy18.49
IONOS6.15
Bluehost3.24
OVH2.47
Liquified Web2.44
SiteGround2.17
Hetzner2.11
Namecheap1.87
DreamHost1.62
InMotion Hosting1.49
Other58.95

Wix Is Most Popular Website Builder

Today, anyone can create a website in minutes using one of the many different website-building tools available online. The most popular of these is Wix which has a 45% market share.

Website Building PlatformMarket Share (%)
Wix45
Squarespace16
GoCentral10
Weebly6
Jimdo0.41
Other23%

Internet Traffic Statistics

90% of Online Activity Begins with a Search Engine

In the early days of the internet, if a user wanted to visit a website, they would need to know the web address of that site and they would type that web address into their computer’s internet browser. Today, 90% of internet activity begins with a search engine.

30% of Global Internet Traffic Comes from Search Engines

Proving just how important optimizing your web content for search engines is, almost a third of all the traffic generated on the internet today comes directly from a user clicking a search engine result.

55% of Internet Traffic Is Mobile

More than half of all the internet traffic in the world is via mobile internet. This is especially true in mobile internet-focused regions like Asia and Africa where the populations are far less likely to have access to good quality fixed-line internet.

Almost Two-Thirds of Internet Traffic Is Video Streaming

Netflix, Amazon Prime, YouTube, and other video streaming giants have hundreds of millions of subscribers watching video every day. This appetite for streaming video content means that 63% of all internet traffic can be attributed to video streaming. 

This means that there are millions of users logged into their accounts and streaming video content at any one time. This might be why some internet service providers (ISP) are trying to increase prices for video streaming companies.

More Than Half of Email Traffic Is Spam

Spam mail has successfully migrated away from the real world, and today most “junk” mail is delivered electronically. In fact, the latest surveys show that around 60% of all of today’s email traffic is unsolicited.

Approximately 60% of Internet Traffic Generated by Bots

Recent studies estimate that less than 40% of internet traffic is generated by humans. The rest of it is generated by both “good” and “bad” bots. Of the traffic generated by these bots, 25% of it was made up of “good” bots, such as social network bots and search engine crawlers.

333 Exabytes per Month

As the number of people accessing the internet around the world continues to grow, so too does the total amount of internet traffic. The average amount of internet traffic per month has now risen to 333 exabytes (EB). For reference, 1 exabyte is equal to 1 billion gigabytes (GB).

HTTPS Protocol Used for Majority of Websites

The adoption rate of the HTTPS protocol has grown rapidly in recent years, driven by increasing concern and interest in online safety and security. In 2019, less than 40% of websites were using the protocol. Today, that figure stands at 90%.

Fastest Internet Speeds

The UAE & Singapore Have the Fastest Internet

The absolute top internet speeds available to users will vary not just from country to country but even from town to town. However, we can calculate the fastest average download speeds for us to get a reasonable idea of which countries have the fastest internet. The UAE has the fastest average mobile internet speed with 110.90Mbps, and Singapore has the fastest average broadband with a 213.18Mbps download speed.

Internet Coordination, Restrictions, & Censorship

ICANN Coordinates the Internet

The Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is the body that is responsible for ensuring that every IP address is unique and individual. They are also responsible for “restoring” the internet should it crash, using 7 “keys” allocated to 7 of the ICANN members.

The Global VPN Market Reaches $44.6 Billion

With the growing demand for secure and private connections to the internet, the VPN market has boomed. For users in places with restricted internet access (China, North Korea, Cuba, Russia)  a VPN might be the only way to access the full internet. 

With this growing interest and need for secure and open internet access, the VPN industry is expected to continue growing and be worth $77.1 billion by the year 2026.

North Korea Has Most Extreme Internet Censorship

North Korea has the worst internet in the world in terms of availability and also censorship. In censorship terms, it is closely followed by China. Both of these countries restrict their citizens from accessing any western social media, torrents, VPNs, and a host of pretty ubiquitous websites such as Google. Both countries have also shut down access to any internet messaging apps created abroad.

Myanmar Has Largest Decline in Internet Freedoms

The country of Myanmar had a very bad year for internet freedoms as several restrictions were implemented during a military coup. Since the coup, the military has continued to restrict access to all social media networks and has implemented a complete ban on VPNs.

Myanmar Has Largest Decline in Internet Freedoms

27 Countries Increased Internet Censorship This Year

Five countries introduced more than one new censorship rule, while one added three new means of censorship. More than one country increased censorship of political and social media, and traditional media outlets have been forced to close in several places. 

35 Countries Blocked or Banned Torrent Sites

Countries from every continent introduced blocks or bans against the use of torrent websites in an ongoing attempt to prevent the spread of harmful materials and reduce the illegal sharing of digital products.

Mobile Internet

5G Internet

5G Is Only Just Beginning

5G internet is the newest standard for mobile internet connection and is being rolled out by providers globally. However, the need for updated cell tower equipment has, unfortunately, slowed the rate and consistency at which the public are able to access 5G internet. The North American region currently only has around a 17% coverage rate and Europe has 16%.

15 Seconds Load Time

The average load time of a website on a mobile device is 15 seconds. Unfortunately, this is more than 5 times longer than over half of internet users are prepared to wait for a web page to load, as 54% of them click off a page that hasn’t loaded in less than 3 seconds. 

Mobile Internet Gaming Worth $116 Billion

Mobile gaming has seen a boom in recent years as more and more people have gained access to cheap mobile devices and reliable internet service. This year saw the industry grow by around $15 billion and it is predicted to reach $210 billion in total value by 2026. 

Consumer Cost Coming Down

The cost of mobile broadband is more affordable than ever before, with prices falling as low as 1.5% of the global average income. However, for many people in lower-income economies, the cost is higher, representing an average of 9% of the average income.

Mobile Internet Platform

Mobile Internet Users Prefer Android

Approximately 75% of mobile internet users connect to the internet using an android device. This isn’t particularly surprising, as it’s only the American public that favors iOS devices over android ones.

Mobile Internet Coverage

4.32 Billion Mobile Internet Users

With the introduction of first 4G and later 5G mobile internet, the number of people accessing the internet away from a fixed location has skyrocketed. Estimates today place the number of people using their mobile phones as their primary means of internet access at 4.32 billion.

North America Is the Most Connected Region

North America is the most connected region in the world with more than three-quarters of people able to access mobile internet. Europe comes in second with 68% of the population having mobile internet access. The least connected region is Sub-Saharan Africa with as little as 24% of the population having mobile internet access.

South Korea Has the Best Mobile Internet Coverage

South Korea came first in a survey of countries with the most comprehensive mobile internet coverage, having an incredible 95.71% coverage. The other countries to feature in the top 10 are #2: Japan (92.03%), #3 Lithuania (84.73%), #4 Hong Kong (84.52%), #5 Netherlands (84.1%), #6 Singapore (82.61%), #7 Norway (82.42%), #8 Kuwait (81.77%), #9 Sweden (81.37%), and #10 United States (81.3%).

Starlink

4000 Starlink Satellites Launched 

Starlink, the satellite internet company has launched more than 4000 satellites so far; however, only 3,194 are operational. This isn’t to be worried about, as satellites are lost for various reasons at irregular intervals.

1,000,000 Starlink Subscribers

That might not sound like a lot, but it’s only taken two years for the company to achieve. The number of subscribers the company had grew by 700% in the last year alone. 80% of those customers are based in the U.S., and 18% are in Australia, New Zealand, and across Europe. The rest of the world makes up the final 2%.

Frequently Asked Questions

There are currently an estimated 5.3 billion internet users around the world. This means that two-thirds of the population of the planet is using the internet.

Technically, yes. The internet is available in every country in the world; however, North Korea officially has zero internet users because the general population is barred from accessing the internet.

The global daily average of time spent on the internet has increased to almost 7 hours. However, national averages vary wildly, with the Japanese average being just over 3 hours per day.

More than half (55%) of internet traffic comes from a mobile device and that figure is expected to continue growing, as citizens from developing nations are more likely to own a mobile than any other kind of internet-enabled device.

Yes, by every measure internet use is growing. There are more internet users than ever before, internet coverage is wider than ever before, and the amount of data the internet contains continues to grow.

The three countries with the largest populations have the most internet users. China has the most users (1+ billion), followed by India (650+ million), and then the U.S. (300+ million).

Sources

Data from the following websites helped us with our own research: Statista, DataReportal, StatCounter, Radicati, SimilarWeb, VeriSign, BuiltWith, IBM, IOT-Analytics.

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About Authors

  • Noel Griffith is a Co-Founder and the Senior Analyst at SupplyGem. With a deep understanding of online businesses and a distinct passion for the creator economy. Drawing from his experience as a developer and online marketer, Noel is devoted to guiding others toward success in their online endeavors. In addition to his contributions at SupplyGem, he is affiliated with notable organizations such as the Association for Talent Development (ATD) and The Learning Guild.

  • Angelia Cline

    Dr. Angelia Cline, Ed.D., has over 20 years of extensive editing expertise and a commendable academic foundation from William Carey University. Besides her position as a Chief Editor for SupplyGem, she is also an Instructional Designer. Dr. Cline manages the Learning Management System (LMS) for a large team, skillfully converting SME knowledge into engaging courses. With over 12 years of teaching experience, she has demonstrated her aptitude across various subjects and educational settings. At William Carey University, Dr. Cline achieved an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership, a Master’s in Teaching of the Gifted and Talented, and another in English Language and Literature. She also secured her BA in English from The University of Southern Mississippi. Her proficiencies range from research and differentiated instruction to educational leadership.

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