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Global Internet Accessibility
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Global Internet Accessibility: Analyzing Population Shares with Online Access

This map illustrates the percentage of the population that used the Internet in the last three months across the world in 2020. For a more detailed and interactive version, click here.

Introduction

Objectives

This report presents the state of internet accessibility across the world by answering these specific questions:

ㅤ 1. What are the top five (5) countries with the highest internet use (by population share)? How many people had internet access in those countries in 2019?
ㅤ 2. What are the top five (5) countries with the highest internet use for each of the following regions: Africa Eastern and Southern, Africa Western and Central, Latin America & Caribbean, East Asia & Pacific, South Asia, North America, and European Union? How do we describe these regions' internet usage over time?
ㅤ 3. What are the top five (5) countries with the most internet users?
ㅤ 4. What is the correlation between internet usage (population share) and broadband subscriptions for 2019?

Data Used

The following tables were used in the analyses, which are part of The World Bank's World Development Indicators (WDI).

Acknowledgments: Max Roser, Hannah Ritchie, and Esteban Ortiz-Ospina (2015) - "Internet." OurWorldInData.org.

Internet
VariableDescription
EntityName of the country, region, or group
CodeUnique id for the country (null for other entities)
YearYear from 1990 to 2019
Internet_UsageShare of the entity's population who have used the internet in the last three months
Hidden code
People
VariableDescription
EntityName of the country, region, or group
CodeUnique id for the country (null for other entities)
YearYear from 1990 to 2020
UsersNumber of people who have used the internet in the last three months for that country, region, or group
Hidden code
Broadband
VariableDescription
EntityName of the country, region, or group
CodeUnique id for the country (null for other entities)
YearYear from 1998 to 2020
Broadband_SubscriptionsNumber of fixed subscriptions to high-speed internet at downstream speeds >= 256 kbit/s for that country, region, or group
Hidden code

Results and Discussion

Countries with the highest internet use by population share

  • Results show that four (4) out of the top five (5) countries with the highest internet use (by population share) are located in the Middle East, which are Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, and United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Note: The most recent 2019 data was used for this comparison.

Hidden code
Current Type: Line
Current X-axis: Year
Current Y-axis: Internet Usage (in %)
Current Color: Country

Internet Usage Over Time of Top Five Countries with the Highest Internet Usage in 2019

Number of people that had internet access for these countries in 2019
  • Among these countries, UAE had the highest number of internet users in 2019.