World: Individuals using the Internet (% of population)

Key figures

What the numbers say

In 2025, World's individuals using the Internet (% of population) rose 2.4 percentage points on 2024 (from 71.2% to 73.6%).

Across the 19 yearly changes before that (2006 to 2024), the average change was +2.93 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 1.06 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 0.5 standard deviations below that average, so it was an ordinary year: it sits within the range of normal year-to-year movement.

On record, the biggest yearly rise was 6.2 percentage points in 2020. The numbers show how large and when, not why; for the cause, look at what happened in that country in those years.

From 2016 to 2025 the straight-line trend is upward, about 3.55 percentage points a year. A straight line explains 98% of the movement over 10 observed years.

Worked out from the yearly values above. How the checks work: standard deviation, z-scores and straight-line trends.

A straight-line projection, tested first

Extending that straight line gives about 86.36% for 2028. We show this only because the same method, fitted on earlier years, predicted 2023 to 2025 better than "no change" would have: its average miss was 1.34%, against 4.33% for assuming no change. Treat it as a continuation of the recent pattern, not a forecast of events: it cannot see a recession, a policy change or a revision to the data.

See how a linear trend forecast works and the guide on forecasting without fooling yourself.

What this measures

Internet users are individuals who have used the Internet (from any location) in the last 3 months. The Internet can be used via a computer, mobile phone, personal digital assistant, games machine, digital TV etc.

Limitations: Operators have traditionally been the main source of telecommunications data, so information on subscriptions has been widely available for most countries. This gives a general idea of access, but a more precise measure is the penetration rate - the share of households with access to telecommunications. During the past few years more information on information and communication technology use has become available from household and business surveys. Also important are data on actual use of telecommunications services. Ideally, statistics on telecommunications (and other information and communications technologies) should be compiled for all three measures: subscriptions, access, and use.

Regional and income-group figures are computed by the World Bank as a weighted average.

All 21 values

Individuals using the Internet (% of population) in nearby economies

• Afghanistan — 16.1% (2024)
• Algeria — 77.42% (2024)
• Bahrain — 100% (2024)
• Djibouti — 65.3% (2024)
• Egypt, Arab Rep. — 74.65% (2024)
• Iran, Islamic Rep. — 85.34% (2024)
• Iraq — 81.47% (2024)
• Israel — 88.18% (2024)
• Jordan — 95.62% (2024)
• Kuwait

More infrastructure data for World

• Fixed telephone subscriptions (per 100 people) — 9.9 (2025)
• Fixed telephone subscriptions — 815 million (2025)
• Air transport, registered carrier departures worldwide — 34.76 million (2023)
• Air transport, passengers carried — 4.27 billion (2023)
• Air transport, freight (million ton-km) — 213,782 (2023)
• Mobile cellular subscriptions — 9.17 billion (2025)
• Mobile cellular subscriptions (per 100 people) — 111.5 (2025)
• Patent applications, nonresidents — 1.02 million (2024)
• Patent applications, residents — 2.7 million (2024)
• ICT service exports (% of service exports, BoP)

Reading data like this

• Where to find free public data, and how to check it before you trust it — 2 min read
• Data analysis examples: 6 worked from one dataset — 3 min read
• Real change or random noise? A plain guide to reading your numbers — 2 min read

Questions people ask

What is World's individuals using the Internet (% of population)?

73.6% in 2025, according to the World Bank (World Development Indicators).

How has it changed since 2005?

It is up 58 percentage points from 15.6% in 2005. The highest value was 73.6% in 2025 and the lowest 15.6% in 2005.

Is the latest change in individuals using the Internet (% of population) unusual for World?

Source

World Bank, World Development Indicators, indicator IT.NET.USER.ZS, licensed CC BY 4.0. Original source: World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Database, International Telecommunication Union (ITU), uri: https://datahub.itu.int/ Figures are fetched from the World Bank API and refreshed monthly; see the series on data.worldbank.org. The full definition and method are in the World Bank's metadata glossary. Comparisons use the same World Bank release.

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