Global Internet usage
Estimates of how many people use the Internet
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Through Internet and World Wide Web
As of 2025, an estimated 6 billion people worldwide were using the Internet, representing approximately 74 percent of the global population. This figure shows continued growth compared with the previous year's estimate of around 5.8 billion users. Despite this progress, significant disparities remain with about 2.2 billion people still offline, underscoring persistent digital divides related to economic development, affordability and infrastructure. Reports on global connectivity emphasize the need for expanded digital infrastructure, affordable services and digital skills training that ensures the expanding Internet access benefits a broader range of population worldwide.
Internet users
As of 2025, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) estimates that approximately 6 billion people, or 74% of the global population, are using the Internet. This reflects a significant increase from 60% in 2020, with an estimated 1.3 billion individuals coming online during that five-year period. Despite this steady growth, a "digital divide" remains, leaving 2.2 billion people offline. The gap is particularly stark in low-income countries, where only 23% of the population uses the Internet, compared to 94% in high-income economies. This disparity in "meaningful connectivity" is increasingly defined by differences in connection speed, affordability, and digital skills.
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Broadband usage
Internet hosts
The Internet Systems Consortium provides account for the number of the worldwide number of IPv4 hosts (see below). In 2019, this Internet domain survey was discontinued as it does not account for IPv6 hosts, and therefore might be misleading.
Web index
The Web index is a composite statistic designed and produced by the World Wide Web Foundation. It provides a multi-dimensional measure of the World Wide Web's contribution to development and human rights globally. It covers 86 countries as of 2014, the latest year for which the index has been compiled. The 2020 edition of the Foundation-affiliated Alliance for Affordable Internet's Affordability Drivers Index, which it describes as benefiting from the research framework established by the Web Index, covered 72 countries. It incorporates indicators that assess the areas of universal access, freedom and openness, relevant content, and empowerment, which indicate economic, social, and political impacts of the Web.
IPv4 addresses
The Carna Botnet was a botnet of 420,000 devices created by hackers to measure the extent of the Internet in what the creators called the "Internet Census of 2012".