According to the Miniwatts Marketing Group’s Internet Usage and World Population Statistics (last updated March 31, 2006), worldwide Internet penetration is only 15.7%! So much for the World Wide Web… this is indeed sobering stuff for those of us obsessed with ‘web 2.0’ technology. Here’s the main table of stats:
|
WORLD INTERNET USAGE AND POPULATION STATISTICS |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
World Regions |
Population % of World |
% Population (Penetra-tion) |
Usage % of World |
Usage Growth 2000-2005 |
|
14.1 % |
2.6 % |
2.3 % |
423.9 % |
|
|
56.4 % |
9.9 % |
35.6 % |
218.7 % |
|
|
12.4 % |
36.1 % |
28.5 % |
177.5 % |
|
|
2.9 % |
9.6 % |
1.8 % |
454.2 % |
|
|
5.1 % |
68.6 % |
22.2 % |
110.3 % |
|
|
8.5 % |
14.4 % |
7.8 % |
342.5 % |
|
|
0.5 % |
52.6 % |
1.7 % |
134.6 % |
|
|
WORLD TOTAL |
100.0 % |
15.7 % |
100.0 % |
183.4 % |
Source: World Internet Usage Statistics and Population Stats (nb: removed two columns to make it fit)
In North America, where most Web innovations still come from, the penetration figure is 68.6%. However in Africa it’s just 2.6%, Asia 9.9% and the Middle East 9.6%. Together Africa, Asia and Middle East make up 73.4% of the world’s population. So that basically means 3/4 of the world has extremely low Internet penetration. The one positive note is that usage growth rates are encouraging (see column on the right).
Interesting to note that China, seen by most analysts as a big growth market for Web technologies, has an Internet penetration of only 8.5%. Considering that great parts of China are rural, this isn’t overly surprising. Also mobile technologies have a much bigger impact in China, than the PC.
Still, these figures put things into perspective. I feel very lucky to live in a country (New Zealand) that has 76.3% penetration – even if the broadband is slow and expensive!
p.s. amazing how in these circumstances Pete Cashmore has managed to get 5 billion RSS subscribers 😉
Originally published on ReadWriteWeb (archived copy)