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How much of the world is online?

By Jared Jacobs, Dell

Recent studies have found that while more than one third of the world’s population are accessing the internet, many of its users are centralised to specific regions. Dell's Jared Jacobs takes a look at the headline numbers.

 

For many people, the thought of being online and using the internet has become an almost integral part of everyday life, with one recent survey suggesting nearly 80 percent of smartphone users reach for their phones within just minutes of waking up. 

And now recent studies show that with more than one third of the world's population accessing the internet, many of its 2.4 billion users are centralised to specific regions.

 

Internet Saturation by Region

The facts of internet usage by region are pretty surprising, with Europe taking the second spot for the most internet usage by number of users per population. With 61 percent of the European population using the web, it means that the region of Europe is home to over 519 million web surfers.

Interestingly enough, the third spot goes to the 79 percent of users in the North American population who use the internet to access online information. Those percentages equate to approximately 274 million North American users. Latin America has an average of 255 million users with a population percentage of 40 percent.

The region with the most internet usage is Asia. While only 26 percent of the continent's population uses the internet, that percentage represents 1.1 BILLION online web users, twice that of Europe.

 

 

Where Does Mobile Usage Fit in This Equation?

With the growing trends of internet availability on smartphones, tablets and touchscreens, we are seeing a dramatic increase in the internet usage globally being done on newer, internet accessible mobile tools.

In fact, 10 percent of all internet usage is done via mobile devices, and mobile devices are usually cheaper, easily replaced and provide a convenient gateway to the internet for billions of people.

In regions like Asia where there is the highest number of internet users, 18 percent of that usage is done via tablets and smartphones. One interesting statistic is that while Africa only has 167 million users (small compared to the regions of Latin America and Asia,) 15 percent of those users access online information via mobile devices.

 

The World is Online

Over the last 12 years, global internet usage has increased by over 566 percent, jumping from a modest 361 million users to over 2.4 billion. This means that the world is continuing to grow online and we can expect to see more internet access per region and through mobile devices in the coming years.