Greater than 40 percent of the world’s people are already online and over 50 percent of the world’s population will be connected to the Internet by 2017, states State of Broadband latest report titled State of Broadband 2014: Broadband for all.
The Broadband Commission for Digital Development – set up by International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) – released the report at its 10th meeting held September 21, 2014 in New York.
The report reveals that greater than 40 percent of the world’s population is already online, with the number of internet users expected to go from 2.3 billion in 2013, to 2.9 billion by the end of 2014.
Per ITU statistics, 1.9 billion people are now active on social networks whereas over 2.3 billion people will have access to mobile broadband by the end 2014 and 7.6 billion will have access within five years.
Providing details of the penetration of broadband worldwide, the report states, “Republic of Korea has the world’s highest household broadband penetration at over 98 percent.”
Moreover, the report states that there are four countries (Netherlands, Monaco, Denmark and Switzerland) where penetration is greater than 40 percent. In 2013, it was just one – Switzerland.
Statistics have revealed that there are now 77 countries where over 50 percent of the population is online, up from the 70 countries in 2013.
According to the report, “The US ranks 19th globally in terms of the number of people online, ahead of other OECD countries like Germany (20th) and Australia (21st), but behind the United Kingdom (12th), Japan (15th) and Canada (16th). The US has slid from 20th to 24th place for fixed broadband subscriptions per capita, just behind Japan but ahead of Macao (China) and Estonia.”
The top 10 countries for Internet usage are all European. Iceland ranks first, with 96.5 percent of the population online. Lowest levels of Internet connectivity are found in sub-Saharan Africa.
Regarding the disparity in broadband penetration, ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun I Touré said, “Broadband uptake is accelerating, but it is unacceptable that 90 percent of people in the world’s 48 Least Developed Countries remain totally unconnected,” and added that, “connectivity is the “most powerful tool” mankind has ever had at its disposal to bridge development gaps in areas like health, education, environmental management and gender empowerment.”
