An estimated 6 billion people used the Internet worldwide in 2025, equal to 74% of the global population. About 2.2 billion people remained offline, so global access was broad but not universal. These figures come from the International Telecommunication Union’s Measuring digital development: Facts and Figures 2025 and describe estimates for 2025 unless another period is stated.
Contents
- Global internet users and growth
- Regional and income-group differences
- Gender differences in Internet use
- Youth and age patterns
- The urban-rural divide
- Network access and subscriptions
Global internet users and growth
The estimated online population rose from 5.8 billion people in 2024 to 6 billion in 2025. In percentage terms, Internet use increased from 71% of the population in 2024 to 74% in 2025. The year-on-year growth rate of the global online population was 3.3% in 2025, up from 2.9% in 2024. These are estimates reported by the ITU in Measuring digital development: Facts and Figures 2025.
The longer view shows a substantial expansion in access. Internet use reached 60% of the world’s population in 2020, and about 1.3 billion people came online between 2020 and 2025, according to the ITU’s Statistics materials. For comparison, the ITU reported that 5.5 billion people were online in 2024, representing 68% of the world population, in Facts and Figures 2024 – Internet use. The 2024 and 2025 figures come from different cited reporting periods and should be read as the figures published for those periods.
| Measure | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| People online | 5.8 billion estimated | 6 billion estimated |
| Population using the Internet | 71% | 74% |
| Online-population growth rate | 2.9% | 3.3% |
| People offline | Not stated in the cited 2025 comparison | About 2.2 billion |
Regional and income-group differences
Internet use varied sharply by region in 2025. The rate was 36% in Africa, 88% in the Americas, 70% in the Arab States region, 77% in Asia-Pacific, 93% in the Commonwealth of Independent States region, and 92% in Europe. The spread between the lowest and highest of these regional figures was therefore wide: Africa’s reported rate was much lower than Europe’s and the CIS region’s rates, while the Americas also had high adoption.
Income groups showed a similar pattern. Internet use was 23% in low-income countries, 63% in lower-middle-income countries, 89% in upper-middle-income countries, and 94% in high-income countries. Among structural country groupings, Internet use was 34% in least developed countries, 38% in landlocked developing countries, and 64% in small island developing States. All figures in this section are 2025 estimates from Measuring digital development: Facts and Figures 2025.
The income-group comparison is useful because it separates economic group from geography. A regional average can conceal differences between countries, while the income classification highlights a strong association between national income group and reported Internet use. These percentages measure the share of the population using the Internet; they are not a ranking of individual websites or online services.
Gender differences in Internet use
Worldwide, 77% of men and 71% of women used the Internet in 2025. The ITU reported that about 280 million more men than women used the Internet worldwide that year. Its global Internet-use gender parity score was 0.92 in 2025, unchanged from 2019.
Regional results differed. In Africa, Internet use was 40% among men and 31% among women. In the Americas, the figures were 89% and 87%, respectively. In the Arab States region, 75% of men and 64% of women used the Internet. In Asia-Pacific, the figures were 81% for men and 74% for women. The CIS region recorded 94% among men and 92% among women, while Europe recorded 93% among men and 92% among women.
The parity trend was not identical across regions. Africa’s Internet-use gender parity score rose from 0.70 in 2019 to 0.78 in 2025. Asia-Pacific’s score declined from 0.92 in 2019 to 0.91 in 2025. The ITU’s global score remained 0.92 across the cited 2019-to-2025 comparison. These scores and percentages are reported measures for the stated periods, rather than independently verified legacy figures.
Youth and age patterns
People aged 15 to 24 were more likely to use the Internet than the rest of the population in 2025. Globally, 82% of people in that age group used the Internet, compared with 72% of the rest of the population. The difference was especially visible in lower-access settings.
In Africa, 50% of 15-to-24-year-olds used the Internet compared with 32% of the rest of the population. In the Americas, the corresponding figures were 97% and 87%. The Arab States recorded 81% among youth and 67% among the rest of the population. Asia-Pacific recorded 89% and 75%, while the CIS region recorded 96% and 92%. Europe recorded 98% among 15-to-24-year-olds and 91% among the rest of the population.
The ITU defines Internet-use universality as at least 95% penetration. In 2025, that threshold was reached among youth in Europe, the CIS region, and the Americas. In low-income countries, 15-to-24-year-olds were 1.9 times as likely to use the Internet as the rest of the population. In high-income countries, youth were only 5% more likely to use it than the rest of the population. The smaller high-income difference is consistent with already high overall use, while the larger low-income difference indicates a wider age-related gap in the reported estimates.
The urban-rural divide
Location remained a major factor in Internet access. Worldwide, 85% of urban residents and 58% of rural residents used the Internet in 2025. The ITU reported that 1.5 urban residents used the Internet for every rural user globally, down from a ratio of 1.6 four years earlier.
The regional figures show how uneven this divide can be. In Africa, Internet use was 55% in urban areas and 21% in rural areas. The Americas recorded 91% in urban areas and 75% in rural areas. In the Arab States region, the figures were 82% and 51%; in Asia-Pacific, 88% and 66%; and in Europe, 94% and 87%.
Income groups also differed by settlement type. In low-income countries, 39% of urban residents and 14% of rural residents used the Internet. In high-income countries, the corresponding rates were 96% and 90%. In least developed countries, Internet use was 50% in urban areas and 25% in rural areas. These comparisons use the ITU’s 2025 estimates and show that the urban-rural gap persists even where overall adoption is high, although its size varies considerably.
Network access and subscriptions
Coverage and subscriptions provide additional context for Internet users statistics. In 2025, 55% of the world’s population was covered by a 5G network. Coverage reached 84% in high-income countries but only 4% in low-income countries. By region, 5G coverage was 74% in Europe, 70% in Asia-Pacific, and 60% in the Americas. It was 13% in the Arab States, 12% in Africa, and 8% in the CIS region.
4G networks covered 93% of the world’s population in 2025, but only 56% of people in low-income countries. The gap between worldwide 4G coverage and low-income-country coverage is therefore substantial, even though 4G was much more widely available globally than 5G in the cited estimates.
The world had 99 mobile-broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants in 2025. The figure was 132 per 100 inhabitants in the Americas and 56 per 100 in Africa. These are subscriptions per 100 inhabitants, not unique people, so they should not be treated as a direct count of individual Internet users. 5G subscriptions represented 36% of all mobile-broadband subscriptions worldwide in 2025.
Traffic measures describe activity rather than population reach. Mobile-broadband traffic was estimated at 1.5 zettabytes in 2025, while fixed-broadband traffic was 7.3 zettabytes. Average monthly mobile-broadband traffic per subscription was 15.3 GB worldwide, including 22 GB in the CIS region and 5.2 GB in Africa. The median price of a data-only mobile-broadband basket fell from 1.5% to 1.4% of GNI per capita globally between 2024 and 2025. All network, subscription, traffic, and affordability figures in this section are from Measuring digital development: Facts and Figures 2025.