As of February 2025, China ranked first among the countries with the most internet users worldwide. The world's most populated country had 1.11 billion internet users, more than triple the third-ranked United States, with just around 322 million internet users. Overall, all BRIC markets had over two billion internet users, accounting for four of the ten countries with more than 100 million internet users. Worldwide internet usage As of October 2024, there were more than five billion internet users worldwide. There are, however, stark differences in user distribution according to region. Eastern Asia is home to 1.34 billion internet users, while African and Middle Eastern regions had lower user figures. Moreover, the urban areas showed a higher percentage of internet access than rural areas. Internet use in China China ranks first in the list of countries with the most internet users. Due to its ongoing and fast-paced economic development and a cultural inclination towards technology, more than a billion of the estimated 1.4 billion population in China are online. As of the third quarter of 2023, around 87 percent of Chinese internet users stated using WeChat, the most popular social network in the country. On average, Chinese internet users spent five hours and 33 minutes online daily.

As of February 2025, Denmark, Netherlands, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates ed the ranking of countries with the highest internet penetration rate, all recording 99 percent. The worldwide internet penetration rate as of October 2024 was 67.5 percent. Most connected regions According to the most recent observations, Northern Europe ranked first among global regions by internet penetration rate. The share of the population accessing the internet in this region was over 97 percent. Northern America ranked second, followed by Western Europe. Overall, the internet reach was higher than 80 percent across all European regions, as well as Northern and Southern parts of America. Unconnected populations Despite having the biggest online audiences worldwide, India and China are also the markets with the highest number of individuals not connected to the web. Regarding the share of population without internet access in worldwide markets, North Korea ranks first, as the internet in the country remains blocked for most of the general public as of April 2024. Central African Republic had 89.4 percent of its population unconnected, followed by Burundi, with 88.7 percent.

As of August 2024, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) had the fastest average fixed broadband internet speed worldwide, with an average of 297.62 Mbps. Singapore ranked a close second at 297.57 Mbps, while Hong Kong followed in third. Fixed internet connections deliver broadband to a home, office, or other fixed location, with fiber connections offering the best quality service.

As of October 2024, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland and Denmark ranked first in Europe by the share of the population connecting to the internet, 99 percent. Sweden followed closely, with around 98.1 percent online penetration. The United Kingdom ranked sixth, with 97.8 percent of the population being online regularly.

As of June 2024, Qatar had the fastest average mobile internet connection worldwide, nearly 335 Mbps. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) followed, registering average median speed above 323 Mbps. Fixed-connection speeds around the world When it comes to fixed broadband connections, Singapore tops the list of countries by average connection speed. Internet users in Singapore achieve an average fixed broadband connection speed of 242.01 Mbps, slightly faster than the 222.49 Mbps achieved in Chile, the second-placed country on the speed rankings. 5G and 6G – the future of mobile broadband In countries where it is in use, 5G is already bringing faster mobile internet connection speeds than ever before. In Saudi Arabia for example, the average 4G connection speed sits at 28.9 Mbps, and this speed jumps to 414.2 Mbps on a 5G connection. Now that 5G is commercially available, researchers have already turned their attention to 6G. Operating at a higher spectrum band, 6G will allow connections several times faster than 5G. User experienced data rates of 5G sit at 100 Mbps, and this speed is expected to climb to 1,000 Mbps on 6G connections. 6G is expected to not only provide faster speeds, but also enable more devices to connect to a network without causing congestion as it has a connection density ten times greater than that of 5G.

As of January 2024, Morocco had an internet penetration of approximately 91 percent, making it the country with the highest internet penetration in Africa. Libya ranked second, with around 88 percent, followed by Seychelles with roughly 87 percent. On the other hand, South Sudan, Burundi, and The Central African Republic 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.

As of January 2024, Nigeria had more than 103 million internet users - the highest number reported all over Africa. Meanwhile, Egypt ranked second with over 82 million users. The majority of web traffic in leading digital markets in Africa originated from mobile devices - in Nigeria, one of the countries with the largest number of internet users worldwide, 86.2 percent of web traffic was generated via smartphones and roughly 13.3 percent via PC devices. This is due in part to the fact that mobile connections are much cheaper and do not require the infrastructure that is needed for traditional desktop PCs with fixed-line internet connections.

Anticipating remarkable growth: Africa's internet user surge and projected milestones The projected trend for Africa indicates a consistent rise in internet users from 2024 to 2029. It will have a collective addition of 337.3 million users (equivalent to a growth of 51.79 percent). Following fifteen successive years of growth, the user count is anticipated to reach a record high of 1.1 billion by 2029. Furthermore, the online penetration rate on the continent was 43 percent – which was below the global average, measured at around 68 percent.

Unveiling internet trends The region has witnessed a steady increase in internet users over the years. In January 2024, Southern Africa stood out as the African region with the most substantial internet penetration rate, reaching approximately 73.1 percent. The proportion of individuals accessing the internet in this part of Africa and Northern Africa surpassed the global average (66.2 percent). Moreover, Morocco boasted an impressive internet penetration of about 91 percent, securing its position as Africa's foremost country. Libya held the second position with a penetration rate of approximately 88 percent, followed closely by Seychelles at around 86.7 percent.

The statistic shows the countries with the highest average internet connection speed during the first quarter of 2017, measured in Megabits per second. During that quarter, IPv4 internet connections in Norway averaged a connection speed of 23.5 Mbps. The global average IPv4 connection speed was 7.2 Mbps.

Average connection speeds are higher in developed Asian countries; South Korea leads with an average connection speed of 28.6 Mbps. This is a growth of more than 9.3 percent to the first quarter of the previous year.

The U.S. states with the highest average internet connection speed include Delaware, District of Columbia and Utah, with first-ranking D.C. having an average connection speed of some 28.1 Mbps as of the first quarter of 2017.

As of the same period, 83 percent of internet users in South Korea enjoyed a connection speed of over 10 Mbps, which is classed as high broadband connectivity. Next in the 10 Mbps broadband adoption rate ranking are Switzerland and the Singapore with 73 percent of high broadband connectivity each. Both Switzerland and Singapore's relatively small size combined with their wealth are a significant factor in terms of telecommunications infrastructure upgrades.

Up until the beginning of 2014, average connection speeds worldwide were under 4 Mbps and by the fourth quarter of 2016, global connection speed averaged at 7 Mbps.

A geographic analysis of the audience found that China accounted for 34.4 percent of internet users in Asia as of July 2022, followed by India with 28.4 percent. China's internet penetration reached 69.8 percent in that year.

South Africa scored 100 points in the Africa e-Connectivity Index 2021, indicating that the country had the highest quality of internet connectivity on the continent. Mauritius and Egypt followed closely, with 96.56 points and 95.42 points, respectively. Closing the top five, Kenya and Tunisia scored respectively 89.6 points and 88.66 points. To develop the ranking, the source assessed 28 different indicators, including the number of mobile networks per country and the share of population covered by 4G networks. According to the index, Eritrea had the lowest quality of internet connectivity, achieving only 8.25 points.

Across Asia, Malaysia had the highest internet adoption rate at around 97.7 percent, followed by South Korea. Worldwide, more than 65 percent of the population is using the internet. Compared to the rest of the world, internet penetration in Asia was still lower than the global average in the past few years. Southeast Asia is leading the way Southeast Asia had the highest internet penetration rates. In China, the internet penetration amounted to only around 78 percent. Nevertheless, in terms of head count, the country has the most internet users in the region with about 991 million. Among the ASEAN states, Indonesia and the Philippines had the biggest internet populations. Countries lagging behind South Asian countries such as Afghanistan and Pakistan had low internet penetration rates, mainly due to high internet fees for fixed broadband and mobile networks in these countries. The low literacy rates were also a contributing factor.

As of January 2024, the Dutch territory of Aruba had the highest internet penetration rate in the Caribbean, with over 97.2 percent of its population online. As of that point, the sovereign state in the region with the highest percentage of citizens online was the Bahamas, with a rate of 94.4 percent. Meanwhile, only around 38.9 percent of Haiti's population were using the internet. Also, during this time, Chile had the highest social media reach within Latin America and the Caribbean.

As of January 2024, the Dominican Republic had the largest number of internet users in the Caribbean, with more than 10.14 million citizens online. Even though the Bahamas ranked seventh with 390.8 thousand users, it was the Caribbean sovereign state with the highest percentage of people online. Meanwhile, Montserrat was the territory with the smallest online population in the region, since only 2.4 thousand of its inhabitants accessed the internet.

As of February 2025, there were 5.56 billion internet users worldwide, which amounted to 67.9 percent of the global population. Of this total, 5.24 billion, or 63.9 percent of the world's population, were social media users. Global internet usage Connecting billions of people worldwide, the internet is a core pillar of the modern information society. Northern Europe ranked first among worldwide regions by the share of the population using the internet in 2024. In The Netherlands, Norway and Saudi Arabia, 99 percent of the population used the internet as of April 2024. North Korea was at the opposite end of the spectrum, with virtually no internet usage penetration among the general population, ranking last worldwide. Asia was home to the largest number of online users worldwide – over 2.93 billion at the latest count. Europe ranked second, with around 750 million internet users. China, India, and the United States rank ahead of other countries worldwide by the number of internet users. Worldwide internet user demographics As of 2023, the share of female internet users worldwide was 65 percent, five percent less than that of men. Gender disparity in internet usage was bigger in the Arab States and Africa, with around a ten percent difference. Worldwide regions, like the Commonwealth of Independent States and Europe, showed a smaller gender gap. As of 2023, global internet usage was higher among individuals between 15 and 24 years across all regions, with young people in Europe representing the most significant usage penetration, 98 percent. In comparison, the worldwide average for the age group 15–24 years was 79 percent. The income level of the countries was also an essential factor for internet access, as 93 percent of the population of the countries with high income reportedly used the internet, as opposed to only 27 percent of the low-income markets.

China is leading the ranking by number of households with internet access , recording 448.01 million households. Following closely behind is India with 158.94 million households, while Lesotho is trailing the ranking with 0.02 million households, resulting in a difference of 447.99 million households to the ranking leader, China. Depicted is the number 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).

As of the first month in 2024, around 94.4 percent of people in the Bahamas were online, making the archipelagic nation the country with the highest percentage of its population using the internet in Latin America and the Caribbean. Meanwhile, more than 90 percent of Chileans were connected to the internet, while this was true for over 83.2 percent of Mexico's population.

As of the first month of 2024, more than nine out of 10 people living in the Bahamas, Costa Rica, Antigua & Barbuda, and Chile were online, putting the countries in the top position regarding internet access in Latin America. Meanwhile, more than 85 percent of the populations of Uruguay, the Dominican Republic, Argentina, Brazil Guyana, and Jamaica were online. On the other hand, less than half of the population of Haiti had access to the internet. Overall, the internet penetration rate in Latin America stood at 74.63 percent. Growth in mobile connectivity… With investments in 4G infrastructure forecast to reach around 211.5 billion U.S. dollars by 2030, the improvement of mobile connectivity is radically changing the picture of access to the internet in Latin America and the Caribbean. One of the best examples is Peru, where the gap between urban and rural areas has greatly diminished in 2021, making its online audiences the fifth largest on the continent in 2023. …at an unequal rate Despite the improvements, Latin America and the Caribbean still face an enormous gap in internet access: the internet penetration rate in the subregion of South America was 80.6 percent in 2023, while only 68.4 percent of people in the Caribbean had access to the web. Despite its investments in mobile connectivity, most of the web traffic in Venezuela still originated from desktop devices in 2023, and only 70.9 Ecuadorians had access to mobile internet in 2023.

As of February 2025, Brazil had approximately 183 million internet users. That is more than Mexico and Argentina combined, the two ranking second and third respectively. Meanwhile, in the Caribbean, the Dominican Republic featured the largest number of internet users.

Within the Asia Pacific region, South Korea had the highest average IPv4 internet connection speed at 28.6 megabits per second (Mbps). Considering this, it comes as no surprise that South Korea also had the highest internet penetration rate and the highest 4G download speed  across Asia. This was due to governmental efforts to facilitate the expansion and improvement of internet. 

Current state of internet in Asia 

Although Singapore had the third-fastest average IPv4 connection speed as of 2017, in 2018, it nonetheless had the fastest internet overall with a mean download speed of 60.39 Mbps, surpassing larger countries such as the U.S. and Germany.  Although India and the Philippines had the lowest average internet connection speeds, its year-on-year growth was higher than the leading countries with respectively 87% and 57%. In the Philippines, the government carried out a National Broadband Plan (NBP) to increase nationwide internet access. Similarly, the Indian government had also proposed a national broadband network to connect all cities and villages. 

Internet connection speed explained 

Megabits per second (Mbps) refer to the speed with which information can be downloaded or uploaded from and to the internet. For the Federal Communications Commission, a sufficient broadband internet connection requires a minimum of 25 Mbps for downloads and 3 Mbps for uploads. In the world of internet, connection speeds above 20 Mbps enable swift web surfing, HD content streaming as well as fast downloads. 

As of 2024, the internet penetration rate in the countries with high income was the highest among all categories, 93 percent. The internet usage rate was coherent with the level of income in examined countries. The economies with low income showed the lowest usage rate, around a quarter of the total population.