Percentage of Internet users continues to grow

The percentage of individuals using the Internet continues to grow worldwide and by end 2011 2.3 billion people were online, according to the ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Database.
In developing countries, the number of Internet users doubled between 2007 and 2011, but only a quarter of inhabitants in the developing world were online by end 2011.

The percentage of individuals using the Internet in the developed world reached the 70% landmark by end 2011. In Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden more than 90% of the population are online.
By end 2011, 70% of the total households in developed countries had Internet, whereas only 20% of households in developing countries had Internet access. Some outstanding exceptions include Lebanon and Malaysia with 62% and 61% of households with Internet respectively.

Total international Internet bandwidth increased seven‐fold over the last five years reaching 76’000 Gbit/s by end 2011. This equates to 34’000 bit/s per Internet user worldwide.

Major differences in Internet bandwidth per Internet user persist between regions: on average, a user in Europe enjoys 25 times as much international Internet capacity as a user in Africa.

By end 2011, there were 590 million fixed (wired) ‐ broadband subscriptions worldwide, the ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Database reported.

Fixed (wired) broadband growth in developed countries is slowing (5% increase in 2011), whereas developing countries continue to experience high growth (18% in 2011).

Fixed (wired)‐broadband penetration remains low in some regions, such as Africa and the Arab States, with 0.2% and 2% respectively by end 2011.In 2011, 30 million fixed (wired)‐broadband subscriptions were added in China, about half of the total subscriptions added worldwide, and fixed (wired)‐broadband penetration reached 12% in the country.

Top performers – such as France, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, the Republic of Korea and Switzerland – had fixed (wired)‐broadband penetrations above 35% by end 2011.

Countries where fixed (wired)‐broadband penetration increased the most in 2011 include Bahrain, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mauritius and Uruguay. However, among these, only Bahrain and Uruguay surpassed the 10% fixed (wired)‐broadband penetration by end 2011.