As of 2023, India had **** billion internet users, more than any other country in the world. China ranked second, with **** billion Indians accessing the internet via any device. The United States followed with approximately *** million online users.

As of 2024, internet penetration in Europe was the highest among the world regions, growing from nearly 60 percent in 2009 to 91 percent in the latest measured year. Internet use in Africa was the lowest worldwide, at 38 percent. As of the same year, the total global internet reach translated to an estimated 4.9 billion internet users worldwide. Europe digital dominance Europe remains the most connected region globally, with steady growth in internet usage. Between 2023 and 2024, the number of internet users rose by 3 percent, and projected to reach 800 million by 2029. As of October 2024, Northern Europe was the first region worldwide by internet penetration, accounting for 97.5 percent penetration rate, while four of the six countries with the highest internet penetration rate worldwide are European, which highlights the region's dominance. Africa’s digital growth Internet use in Africa continues to grow, with mobile devices accounting for most of the web traffic across major African markets. Between 2023 and 2024, the number of internet users on the continent increased by nearly 13 percent, while the number of mobile internet users increased by 26 percent, reaching 331 million. As of January 2024, Morocco was leading with an impressive internet penetration rate of around 91 percent, while countries like Nigeria, Egypt, and South Africa had the highest number of internet users in the continent.

🌐 Global Internet Access & Digital Inclusion Dataset (1960–2024)

A comprehensive, multi-source dataset tracking internet penetration, digital exclusion, and economic classification across 200+ countries over six decades — built for researchers, data scientists, and policymakers studying the global digital divide.

📌 Overview

This dataset bridges the gap between raw internet usage statistics and broader socio-economic context. By combining internet penetration rates with World Bank income classifications, regional groupings, and lending categories, it enables nuanced analysis of how economic development correlates with — and often predicts — digital connectivity.

Key highlights: - 60+ years of longitudinal data (1960–2024) - 200+ countries and territories - 12 carefully harmonized columns - Binary indicators for digital exclusion and tiered access levels - World Bank income and lending classifications included

Whether you're building ML classifiers, forecasting connectivity trends, or conducting development economics research, this dataset provides the depth and structure needed for meaningful, publishable work.

📁 Column Reference

🔬 Suggested Use Cases

• Digital divide analysis — Map and visualize the gap between high- and low-income countries across time
• Time-series forecasting — Predict future internet penetration using 60+ years of per-country data
• ML classification models — Use income group, region, and lending category as features to classify digital inclusion
• Regional development comparisons — Compare connectivity trajectories across Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, MENA, Latin America, and more
• Policy & development research — Evaluate which economic interventions (IDA lending, EMU membership) correlate with digital gains
• Exploratory data analysis & visualization — Rich categorical and continuous variables ideal for choropleth maps, heatmaps, and animated line charts

🏷️ Income Groups Explained

⚠️ Data Notes

• Missing values exist for earlier decades (pre-1990) and some smaller or newly independent nations — handle nulls before modeling
• Data has been harmonized across multiple sources — cross-referencing with original World Bank indicators is recommended for publication-grade research
• Digitally_Excluded and Has_Internet are derived binary indicators; treat them as engineered features, not raw survey results

🔍 Recommended Tags

internet access · digital divide · world bank · socioeconomic · time series · global development · digital inclusion · binary classification · forecasting · geospatial

📄 License

Open for research and educational use.

If this dataset helped your work, please upvote and leave a comment — it helps other researchers discover it! 🙏

Discover the internet usage rate by country, showcasing the percentage of the population online. This statistic highlights digital accessibility and connectivity trends globally, emphasizing the importance of internet access in today's world.

As of October 2025, China had the highest number of internet users in the Asia-Pacific region, at around *** billion. India followed closely, with **** billion internet users. China and India were leading within the Asia Pacific region and had the highest number of internet users worldwide. The Asia-Pacific (APAC) region had the largest number of internet users globally; however, internet penetration in Asia was still below the global average. Internet usage patterns in APAC The Philippines leads the region in average daily time spent using the internet in the Asia Pacific region, at around **** hours online each day. For emerging markets like Thailand, China, Indonesia, and the Philippines, over ** percent of online time occurs on mobile devices. In contrast, users in more developed markets such as South Korea, Singapore, and Australia tend to have a more balanced distribution of internet time between mobile and desktop. In Japan, internet users reported spending around ** percent of online time on computers, compared to around ** percent on mobile devices. This contrast highlights the diversity of internet usage behaviors across the Asia-Pacific region, shaped by varying levels of digital infrastructure, economic development, and consumer preferences. Mobile internet development in APAC Mobile internet has experienced considerable growth worldwide and in the Asia-Pacific region throughout recent years. Since 2015, the number of mobile internet subscribers in APAC has doubled. At the same time, mobile internet download speeds in APAC have improved markedly, with countries like South Korea, China, and Singapore leading the region in performance. As a result, mobile internet user penetration across APAC was forecasted to increase steadily through 2030.

Context

This data set consists of the list of countries by the number of internet users in 2018. The data was collected from Wikipedia, and then I just created a Comma Separated Value format with the help of Microsoft Excel.

Content

This is a trivial data set which has 6 columns and 215 rows containing the country name, population, population by rank, internet users, internet users rank and percentage.

Inspiration

I want to find what are the important features that contribute to the rank of countries based on internet users. Also, I want to create a model that can predict the rank given the population and internet users.

In 2024, it was found that ** percent of the population in Malaysia, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, and Switzerland were mobile internet users. New Zealand had a mobile internet penetration of approximately **** percent. The UAE, Kuwait, and Bahrain also rank among the countries with the fastest average mobile internet speed worldwide.

A line chart that shows % of U.S. adults who say they use the internet, by race and ethnicity

Graph and download economic data for Internet users for Romania (ITNETUSERP2ROU) from 1990 to 2024 about Romania, internet, and persons.

Graph and download economic data for Internet users for Hong Kong SAR, China (ITNETUSERP2HKG) from 1990 to 2023 about Hong Kong, internet, and persons.

CN: Internet Service: No of Internet User: Yunnan data was reported at 18.920 Person mn in Dec 2016. This records an increase from the previous number of 17.610 Person mn for Dec 2015. CN: Internet Service: No of Internet User: Yunnan data is updated semiannually, averaging 8.440 Person mn from Dec 2003 (Median) to Dec 2016, with 14 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 18.920 Person mn in Dec 2016 and a record low of 1.664 Person mn in Dec 2003. CN: Internet Service: No of Internet User: Yunnan data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by China Internet Network Information Center. The data is categorized under China Premium Database’s Information and Communication Sector – Table CN.ICE: Internet: Number of Internet User and Penetration Rate.

As of October 2025, India had the largest offline population worldwide, with more than 440 million people lacking internet access. Pakistan ranked second, with approximately 139.39 million people not connected to the internet. Despite these figures, both countries also ranked among those with the highest numbers of internet users globally. Internet access in Africa In 2023, Africa lagged behind other global regions regarding internet penetration rate, as only 37 percent of the continent’s population accessed the web. In contrast, around 91 percent of Europe’s population were internet users. This is heavily influenced by the infrastructure development in the region. However, some improvements are forecasted, as by 2028, the internet penetration rate in Africa will be at an estimated 48.15 percent. Global internet access challenges: disruptions and restrictions Government internet shutdowns around the world are another challenge for internet access. Between 2015 and the first half of 2023, 172 local internet connection disruptions occurred due to protests globally. Moreover, according to a 2023report on internet freedom, almost four out of ten global internet users were deprived of essential freedoms on online platforms. In 2023, 76 new restrictions on internet usage were implemented worldwide. Asia led in imposing these restrictions, accounting for approximately 55 cases across various countries in the region.

Graph and download economic data for Internet users for Bhutan (ITNETUSERP2BTN) from 1990 to 2023 about Bhutan, internet, and persons.

CN: Internet Service: Internet Penetration Rate: Heilongjiang data was reported at 48.100 % in Dec 2016. This records an increase from the previous number of 44.500 % for Dec 2015. CN: Internet Service: Internet Penetration Rate: Heilongjiang data is updated semiannually, averaging 23.900 % from Dec 2003 (Median) to Dec 2016, with 14 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 48.100 % in Dec 2016 and a record low of 5.900 % in Dec 2003. CN: Internet Service: Internet Penetration Rate: Heilongjiang data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by China Internet Network Information Center. The data is categorized under China Premium Database’s Information and Communication Sector – Table CN.ICE: Internet: Number of Internet User and Penetration Rate.

As of February 2025, Morocco had an internet penetration of over 92 percent, making it the country with the highest internet penetration in Africa. Libya ranked second, with 88.5 percent, followed by Seychelles with over 87 percent. On the other hand, The Central African Republic, Chad, and Burundi had the lowest prevalence of internet among their population. Varying but growing levels of internet adoption Although internet usage varies significantly across African countries, the overall number of internet users on the continent jumped to around 646 million from close to 181 million in 2014. Of those, almost a third lived in Nigeria and Egypt only, two of the three most populous countries on the continent. Furthermore, internet users are expected to surge, reaching over 1.1 billion users by 2029. Mobile devices dominate web traffic Most internet adoptions on the continent occurred recently. This is among the reasons mobile phones increasingly play a significant role in connecting African populations. As of early January 2024, around 74 percent of the web traffic in Africa was via mobile phones, over 14 percentage points higher than the world average. Furthermore, almost all African countries have a higher web usage on mobile devices compared to other devices, with rates as high as 92 percent in Sudan. This is partly due to mobile connections being cheaper and not requiring the infrastructure needed for traditional desktop PCs with fixed-line internet connections.

Graph and download economic data for Internet users for Peru (ITNETUSERP2PER) from 1990 to 2024 about Peru, internet, and persons.

Graph and download economic data for Internet users for Georgia (ITNETUSERP2GEO) from 1990 to 2023 about Georgia, internet, and persons.

A line chart that shows % of U.S. adults who say they subscribe to home broadband, by gender

Graph and download economic data for Internet users for El Salvador (ITNETUSERP2SLV) from 1990 to 2023 about El Salvador, internet, and persons.

The percentage of households with internet access in Africa was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2029 by in total 14.5 percentage points. After the twenty-eighth consecutive increasing year, the internet penetration is estimated to reach 68.81 percent and therefore a new peak in 2029. Notably, the percentage of households with internet access of was continuously increasing over the past years.Depicted is the share of housholds with internet access in the country or region at hand.The shown data are an excerpt of Statista's Key Market Indicators (KMI). The KMI are a collection of primary and secondary indicators on the macro-economic, demographic and technological environment in up to 150 countries and regions worldwide. All indicators are sourced from international and national statistical offices, trade associations and the trade press and they are processed to generate comparable data sets (see supplementary notes under details for more information).Find more key insights for the percentage of households with internet access in countries like Caribbean and Asia.