The latest internetworldstats.com statistics show that worldwide Internet penetration has increased to 16.0%, largely thanks to Asia. About 3 months ago when I last posted on this, the worldwide penetration was 15.7%. Since then Asia has increased from 9.9 % population penetration to 10.4%. As a % of world Internet penetration, Asia increased from 35.6% to 36.5%.
China, as always, is at the heart of this change – they increased from 8.5% penetration to 9.4% (making up 32.3% of Asia’s total). Japan is second in Asia, with 22.7% share – but their country penetration is much higher at 67.2%.
Europe has also had a slight increase, from 36.1 % population penetration to 36.4 % – but their global % has dropped from 28.5% to 28.2%. North America’s population penetration has stayed steady, at 68.6%. However, mainly because of Asia’s increase, North America’s global % has dropped from 22.2% to 21.8 %.
These might seem like minor changes, but bear in mind it’s only over 3 months – imagine what Asia’s Internet penetration will look like in 2 years time, or 5 years! Especially given they currently have 56.4% of the world’s population of 6.5 Billion.
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WORLD INTERNET USAGE AND POPULATION STATISTICS |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
|
World Regions |
Population % of World |
% Population ( Penetration ) |
Usage % of World |
Usage Growth 2000-2005 |
|
14.1 % |
2.6 % |
2.3 % |
423.9 % |
|
|
56.4 % |
10.4 % |
36.5 % |
232.8 % |
|
|
12.4 % |
36.4 % |
28.2 % |
179.8 % |
|
|
2.9 % |
9.6 % |
1.7 % |
454.2 % |
|
|
5.1 % |
68.6 % |
21.8 % |
110.4 % |
|
|
8.5 % |
14.7 % |
7.8 % |
350.5 % |
|
|
0.5 % |
52.6 % |
1.7 % |
134.6 % |
|
|
WORLD TOTAL |
100.0 % |
16.0 % |
100.0 % |
189.0 % |
Source: World Internet Usage Statistics and Population Stats
Biggest Countries
More fascinating data in the following table, which shows the US still well ahead of China and Japan in Internet users. Similar to the broadband penetration table (except India, the world’s second biggest country, doesn’t even make the top 20 there).
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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# |
Country or Region |
Internet Users,Latest Data |
Internet Penetration |
% Users of World |
|
|
1 |
205,493,713 |
68.7 % |
19.7 % |
||
|
2 |
123,000,000 |
9.4 % |
11.8 % |
||
|
3 |
86,300,000 |
67.2 % |
8.3 % |
||
|
4 |
50,600,000 |
4.5 % |
4.9 % |
||
|
5 |
49,976,303 |
60.6 % |
4.8 % |
||
|
6 |
37,800,000 |
62.9 % |
3.6 % |
||
|
7 |
33,900,000 |
67.0 % |
3.2 % |
||
|
8 |
28,870,000 |
48.8 % |
2.8 % |
||
|
9 |
26,871,652 |
44.0 % |
2.6 % |
||
|
10 |
25,900,000 |
14.1 % |
2.5 % |
||
|
11 |
23,700,000 |
16.5 % |
2.3 % |
||
|
12 |
21,900,000 |
67.9 % |
2.1 % |
||
|
13 |
18,000,000 |
8.1 % |
1.7 % |
||
|
14 |
17,577,975 |
39.6 % |
1.7 % |
||
|
15 |
17,100,000 |
16.3 % |
1.6 % |
||
|
16 |
14,189,557 |
68.4 % |
1.4 % |
||
|
17 |
13,800,000 |
60.3 % |
1.3 % |
||
|
18 |
10,806,328 |
65.9 % |
1.0 % |
||
|
19 |
10,600,000 |
27.8 % |
1.0 % |
||
|
20 |
10,220,000 |
13.7 % |
1.0 % |
||
|
TOP 20 Countries |
826,605,528 |
20.3 % |
79.2 % |
||
|
Rest of the World |
216,499,358 |
8.9 % |
20.8 % |
||
|
Total World – Users |
1,043,104,886 |
16.0 % |
100.0 % |
||
Source: Internet Users – Top 20 Countries – Internet Usage
A sidenote: my own little country, New Zealand, is now the number 1 ranked country in the world in terms of Internet Penetration. NZ has 76.3%! USA, the top ranked ‘big country’ is 7th with 68.6%.
Top 10 Languages
English still dominates on the Web, at 30%. But note that Chinese is actually more widely used in real life, so one would think over time Chinese will become much more prominent on the Web.
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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TOP TEN LANGUAGES IN THE INTERNET |
% of all Internet Users |
Internet Users by Language |
Internet Penetration by Language |
Internet Growth for Language ( 2000 – 2005 ) |
World Population 2006 Estimate for the Language |
|
|
30.0 % |
312,924,679 |
27.8 % |
128.1 % |
1,125,664,397 |
||
|
13.8 % |
144,301,513 |
10,8 % |
346.7 % |
1,340,767,863 |
||
|
8.3 % |
86,300,000 |
67.2 % |
83.3 % |
128,389,000 |
||
|
7.5 % |
78,166,075 |
17.9 % |
216.7 % |
429,293,261 |
||
|
5.6 % |
58,214,778 |
60.7 % |
110.9 % |
95,982,043 |
||
|
4.4 % |
45,807,499 |
12.0 % |
275.5 % |
381,193,149 |
||
|
3.2 % |
33,900,000 |
45.8 % |
78.0 % |
73,945,860 |
||
|
3.1 % |
32,372,000 |
14.0 % |
327.3 % |
230,846,275 |
||
|
2.8 % |
28,870,000 |
48.8 % |
118.7 % |
59,115,261 |
||
|
2.3 % |
23,700,000 |
16.5 % |
664.5 % |
143,682,757 |
||
|
TOP TEN LANGUAGES |
81.0 % |
844,556,544 |
21.0 % |
160.7 % |
4,008,879,867 |
|
|
Rest of World Languages |
19.0 % |
198,548,342 |
8.0 % |
436.0 % |
2,490,817,193 |
|
|
100.0 % |
1,043,104,886 |
16.0 % |
189.0 % |
6,499,697,060 |
||
Source: World Internet Usage Statistics Top Languages
Originally published on ReadWriteWeb (archived copy)