I just recieved my email newsletter from Internet World stats today. It provides a fascinating summary of internet use and penetration across nine geographic regions (it strangely has the Carribbean as its own region) as well as the world as a whole. These are vitally important pieces of information for those wanting to track how much internet training to provide their students based on the trends for how important its becoming in their region of the world.
The stats this time (from end of 2008) are fascinating in that they show that while North America has an internet penetration of 73.1%, Australia/Oceania was second with 59.9%, and Europe was at 48.5%. Asia as a whole was at 17.2% (but off a much larger population base). Whats even more interesting/ shocking to me was that as a whole, internet use/ availability was 23.5%. Less than a quarter of the world use/access the world wide web. Maybe we should change the name for a while? It made me stop and think that even though I live in an entirely connected/ internet based reality, on a global scale I’m in the minority and should cherish the benefits I am able to gain from living where I do. Just sayin.
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Internet World Statistics Report |
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|
Region |
Population |
Internet Users |
P. R. (%) |
% Table |
| Africa |
975,330,899 |
54,171,500 |
5.6 % |
3.4 % |
| America, North |
337,572,949 |
246,822,936 |
73.1 % |
15.7 % |
| America, Central |
151,256,045 |
28,814,000 |
19.0 % |
1.8 % |
| America, South |
389,621,930 |
128,652,435 |
33.0 % |
8.2 % |
| Caribbean, the |
40,371,917 |
8,894,300 |
22.0 % |
0.6 % |
| Asia |
3,780,819,792 |
650,361,843 |
17.2 % |
41.3 % |
| Europe |
803,903,540 |
390,141,073 |
48.5 % |
24.8 % |
| Middle East |
196,767,614 |
45,861,346 |
23.3 % |
2.9 % |
| Oceania, Australia |
34,384,384 |
20,593,751 |
59.9 % |
1.3 % |
| Total World |
6,710,029,070 |
1,574,313,184 |
23.5 % |
100.0 % |
| Source: Internet World Stats, estimates for December 31, 2008. Notes: a) Population data comes from the US Census Bureau; b) Internet estimates come from ITU, Nielsen Online, GfK, official telecommunications regulating agencies and other trustworthy surveys; c) Mexico is included in Central America and Turkey is included in Europe, according to the United Nations grouping; d) P.R. means the Penetration Rate. Copyright © 2009, Miniwatts Marketing Group. |
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In December 2008 the number of Internet users reached 1,574,313,184 persons. This represents a 23.5% Internet penetration rate for the world.
