21 Head-Turning Internet Access Statistics (2025)

Just last week, I encountered two extreme versions of internet access, each from opposite sides of the spectrum. First, my sister, age 30, said she doesn’t own a home computer or laptop and only accesses the internet from her phone. I also tried a video call with my great aunt, who’s 65+ and lives in rural Illinois. I’ve never had so many dropped calls in my life.

The example of my sister shows the incredible progress we’ve made with global internet access. Mobile and satellite networks are spreading, granting smooth internet access across continents. But there are still blind spots, particularly in developing and rural regions. That’s where numbers come into play.

During my research, I’ve discovered some eye-opening statistics about who has internet access and who doesn’t. Take a look, because the numbers may surprise you and help us grow as a global community to ensure internet access to all.

Here’s a statistic you can share at your next dinner party. Experts estimate that close to 61% of the world’s population has access to the internet. That’s more than 5.02 billion people.

Asia has the most internet users, while Europe, Africa, and North America trail far behind. Interestingly, Africa recently surpassed North America with more internet-connected citizens. South America and Oceania make up the lowest concentration of internet users.¹

Can you guess which countries have the most internet users?

With more than 1.11 billion people connected to the internet, China has the highest number of internet users in one country.² It overshadows the second and third largest digital populations: India and the United States. Other high-ranking countries include Indonesia, Brazil, and Russia.

Countries with the Largest Digital Populations

India boasts 806 million internet users, while the United States has just more than 322 million. The numbers make sense since India, China, and the United States have the highest total populations in the world.

Yet, countries with high internet access rates also benefit from localized technology communities, tech-savvy citizens, and participation in global commerce.

Take Brazil, for instance; it actually has the seventh largest population but ranks as the fifth most connected country, thanks to elements like global trade and a solid tech community.³

The smartphone has replaced the computer for many online tasks, but it may surprise you how many people skip home broadband internet altogether.

Smartphone-only internet users are those who don’t subscribe to home broadband and rarely use a laptop or desktop computer.

This also means these adults may rely solely on cellular data to access the internet. This trend has varied over the years; 20% of U.S. adults surveyed identified as smartphone-dependent in 2018, but that fell to 15% of U.S. adults who did so in 2024.⁴

We’ve all heard someone say, “Kids these days are always on their darn phones,” and that’s not entirely wrong.

Almost half of the American teen population claims to use the internet “constantly,” showing what many consider a problem with addiction to technology, especially for young users.

The numbers change depending on ethnicity, household income, and gender. Lower-income households have teens with higher rates of “constant” internet usage, reaching 54% for households with incomes below $30,000.

In addition, 54% of Black teens and 55% of Hispanic teens report using the internet “constantly,” compared to 38% of White teens. Girls (47%) also said they have more trouble staying off the internet than boys (45%).⁵

American female teens access the internet more regularly than their male counterparts. Yet the numbers tell a different story when looking at the devices used.

Yes, teen girls access the internet more than boys on smartphones (97% vs. 94%), computers (91% vs. 89%), and tablets (66% vs. 64%), but internet usage skyrockets for teen boys when it comes to gaming consoles.

In fact, 91% of boys connect to the internet via gaming consoles, compared to 75% of girls.⁵

U.S. 18-to-29-year-olds and 30-to-49-year-olds have near-universal (99%) connectivity rates. That drops to 98% for the 50-to-64-year age group.

People above the age of 65, however, are slower to adopt the internet like the rest of the country.

Only 90% of 65+ adults in the U.S. use the internet. That’s still a high number compared to the rate of internet use among this age group in other countries, but it shows how those who, perhaps, hadn’t grown up with the internet are less likely to embrace it in their later years.

South Africa, Senegal, Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria made up the five Sub-Saharan African countries with significant boosts in internet access during the COVID-19 pandemic.

South Africa saw the greatest change of 14%, bringing internet access to 66% of the country. The trend was most prevalent among older, employed female South Africans. In Nigeria, adoption took place mostly among men and youths.⁷

A digital divide between men and women in Afghanistan has existed for decades, but that situation worsened once the Taliban regained power in the country after 2021.

About 25% of Afghan men enjoy access to the internet. In comparison, only 6% of Afghan women can access the internet. The numbers drop further in rural areas, where only 2% of women have internet access.⁸

Many people fall under the category of light internet users or even those who rarely connect to the internet. However, some people have actually never used the internet their entire lives.

This is particularly common in countries such as Bulgaria, where 29% of the population claims to have never accessed the internet.

Central Greece also has a high rate (28%) of people who have never used the internet. Other notable countries that lack access to the internet include Italy, France, and Turkey.⁹

China and India have large populations, so it makes sense that internet usage numbers in those countries are so much higher than in other countries. However, North America and Europe lead the way in the share of a region’s population that uses the internet.

Percentage of Population Using the Internet:

In fact, 97.3% of the North American population accesses the internet, while 90.1% of people in Europe and Central Asia use the internet. In East Asia and the Pacific, 79% of the population uses the internet, and in South Asia, the share of the population using the internet is 42.9%.

Sub-Saharan Africa has the lowest share of people accessing the internet at 36.7%.¹⁰

Internet users in China, one of the most smartphone-reliant countries, almost unanimously rely on smartphones in some way to access the internet.

Desktop usage in the country drops dramatically compared to usage on smartphones, seeing as only 33.9% of internet users in China tap into the internet with a desktop computer.

Laptops get even less use (30.3%) in China, while users in China turn to TVs (22.5%) and tablets (26.6%) for internet access with even less frequency.¹¹

The number of unique mobile phone users worldwide has grown to 5.81 billion. However, a mobile phone doesn’t imply internet access.

It’s a good start to increasing connectivity globally, but only about 87% of those active mobile phones have an internet connection. Therefore, the other 13% of cellphone users simply make phone calls and texts without a data connection.¹²

Geographic context plays a significant role in the internet access divide, even in countries with high internet access rates.

For example, in almost every geographic region of the United States, urban residents report significantly higher levels of broadband subscriptions and internet connectivity than those living in nearby rural areas.

Notably, the internet access divide between urban and rural households is much larger in the South.¹³

Having someone at home with a physical or mental disability decreased the frequency of a household’s computer ownership and broadband subscription. These households reported owning a computer 90.5% of the time and having internet subscriptions 84% of the time.

According to the U.S. Census, people were less likely to have an internet subscription if they rented, had limited English proficiency, or had at least one person in the household with a disability.

That compares with a 96.7% computer ownership rate and a 93% internet subscription rate among U.S. households that did not have a member suffering from a mental or physical disability.¹³

Children and teens have staggering internet access rates in the United States. Those between 3 and 18 can connect to the internet at home 97% of the time, according to survey results.

The device matters, however: Internet access for children and teens comes via computers 93% of the time. Smartphones for children aged three to 18 are far less prevalent, at only 4%.

Studies show that smartphone connectivity in this age range has actually decreased since 2016.¹⁴

Although U.S. teens with lower-income parents more frequently report using the internet “almost constantly,” they’re actually given fewer opportunities to connect to the internet.

Parents in the highest quarter of income report giving their children three to 18 internet access 99% of the time. Those numbers drop with every quarterly decrease in income level (mid-high quarter, middle-low quarter, and the lowest quarter).

Parents in the lowest income quarter said they provide their three-to-18-year-old teens with internet access at a 94% rate.

A parent’s education level was a factor in survey results. Those parents with bachelor’s degrees or higher said they provided internet access to their children far more frequently than those with some college, a high school diploma, or no high school diploma.¹⁴

Not surprisingly, the least developed countries have much lower internet access percentages than developed countries.

But the statistics improve for developing countries with landlocked borders, perhaps because they have surrounding support from more developed countries.

Least developed countries, identified by the United Nations as countries that exhibit the lowest indicators of socioeconomic development, report 35% internet access rates, while landlocked developing nations have a 39% internet access rate.¹⁵

Some people will simply never want to connect to the internet. In addition, an older demographic may actually turn away from the internet as they transition out of the workforce.

When looking at the collection of countries considered developed, 93% of those populations are already online. That percentage increases slowly each year, with an annual growth rate below 1%.

Experts argue that internet connectivity in any country will never reach 100% because some people don’t want or need it.¹⁵

Internet connectivity with wearables — smartwatches, rings, and even glasses — grew by 12% among American consumers from 2017 to 2023, reaching 20% usage in 2023.

Connecting with a smartphone is still the most popular way to gain internet access, with 74% of Americans preferring that route in 2023.

Desktop computer connectivity is the only decreasing device category in the United States. It dropped from 45% usage in 2011 to 30% usage in 2017, then dropped to 20% usage in 2023.¹⁶

Low-income countries have more room to grow in the realm of internet access. That helps explain why internet access rates have skyrocketed recently, and they continue to increase thanks to more affordable broadband, devices, and other factors.

Since 2020, the number of internet users in low-income countries has grown by 44%. The number of internet users in high-income regions experienced roughly 1% growth over the same period.¹⁶

Back in 2017, Smart TVs surpassed desktops as the preferred medium for internet access.

In 2023, more than half (54%) of Americans used Smart TVs to connect to the internet, while only 20% turned to desktop computers for internet access. And that divide continues to grow.¹⁷

Some statistics on internet access are nothing short of astounding, while others I find easier to understand. Demographics, geographic locations, and income all influence how people connect online. I’m also starting to see shifts in how children use the internet.

I encourage you to use these statistics to understand how internet access works worldwide and form your own opinions on how you’d like to approach connectivity in your home and business.

You may, for instance, follow the trend of fewer young adults connecting to the internet via smartphones. Or perhaps you live or do business in a developing nation and want to assist in the push for easier internet access for all.

1. https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/number-of-internet-users
2. https://www.statista.com/statistics/262966/number-of-internet-users-in-selected-countries/
3. https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/population-by-country/
4. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/internet-broadband/?tabItem=6ba9316e-006c-482d-be4b-69feb64c4be8
5. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/teens-and-internet-device-access-fact-sheet/
6. https://www.statista.com/statistics/266587/percentage-of-internet-users-by-age-groups-in-the-us/
7. https://news.gallup.com/poll/394811/africa-online-internet-access-spreads-during-pandemic.aspx
8. https://news.gallup.com/opinion/gallup/471209/digital-freedom-reach-afghan-women.aspx
9. https://www.nationmaster.com/nmx/ranking/individuals-having-never-accessed-the-internet
10. https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-individuals-using-the-internet
11. https://www.statista.com/statistics/265174/access-devices-of-internet-users-in-china/
12. https://datareportal.com/global-digital-overview
13. https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/2024/demo/acs-56.pdf
14. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/cch/home-internet-access
15. https://www.itu.int/itu-d/reports/statistics/2023/10/10/ff23-internet-use/
16. https://www.ntia.gov/data/explorer#sel=internetUser&disp=map
17. https://www.ntia.gov/blog/2018/new-data-show-substantial-gains-and-evolution-internet-use