Analysis Of Worldwide Internet Users

Over the last couple of decades the Internet has become a huge worldwide phenomenon. It now has a big part to play in the lives of over a billion people. More and more people are using the Internet all of the time and this is likely to increase for some time yet.

At the start of the Internet age Europeans and North Americans were by far the biggest users. This is gradually changing though as other continents embrace the world wide web. Recent years has seen a big increase in Internet users in other regions, particularly Africa and the Middle East, and even more so Asia. Since 2000 the number of users in Africa and the Middle East has increased by around 1,360%. Percentage wise the increase has not been so high in Asia but its increase is in a way more significant as its overall proportion is much larger. Asia contains 56% of the world population, a staggering 3.8 billion of the 6.7 billion people on earth. In 2000, despite its population, the number of Internet users in Asia was only slightly more than North America and the United States, with the figures of the three regions 114 million, 108 million and 105 million. Now though the figures more reflect Asias domination of the worlds population. Asia has just over 42% of users, at 704 million over 300 million more than any other region. Another change is that Europe has overtaken North America as the second biggest user of the Internet. In terms of percentage of their population Asia is still quite far behind, with North America having the highest figure. Only 18.5% of Asians use the Internet, while half of Europeans do and three quarters of North Americans do. Although it doesnt in total yet, the number of visitors in reflecting the overall populations more and more. Despite their percentage increase the percentage of users from Africa and the Middle East are fairly insignificant in terms of the number of worldwide users. In the Middle East, 24% of people use the Internet, which is higher than Asia, but there population is only 5% that of Asia. Only 6.7% of Africans currently use the Internet but this is likely to increase more dramatically as it further develops. Computers and the Internet is a modern invention and fits into modern life as Europeans and North Americans would think of it. Many Africans have very different lifestyles and this is reflected in the figures. Asia is a mixture of old and new, but modernising all the time, thus the increase in Internet users. As developing nations become more technologically advanced this trend is likely to continue.

Overall Asia currently has 42% of Internet users, while Europe and North America has 24% and 15% respectively. Latin America and the Caribbean have 10%, with other regions each between 1 and 3%.

Andrew Marshall