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Here is a search resource for
quickly finding selected content in this website:
1. INTERNET
USAGE AND WORLD POPULATION STATISTICS
The World Population and Internet User information is the main
demographic content for this web site. It has been collected by
our webmaster since 2000 and is displayed in the statistics
pages. There are seven individual statistical tables for each of the six
main geographical regions of the world (Africa, America, Asia, Europe,
Middle East, and Oceania), and a general world summary page
called the big picture.
Additionally, a top Internet usage countries table, a most penetrated
countries table, a most populated countries table and a unique
table containing Internet usage by languages are included. Other analysis
are being added periodically, for example: Facebook usage, Spanish
speakers, etc. For information on the sources, definitions, the
methodology and details about the data displayed please read the
following notes.
1.1 INTERNET USAGE
Before we can measure or forecast Internet Usage, we must first
answer a basic question: Who is an Internet user? Research
firms, analysts, consultancies and other sources all disagree on
how to answer this seemingly simple question.
The ITU subscribes to the definition of an Internet user as
someone aged 2 years old and above, who went online in the past
30 days. The US Department of Commerce, in contrast, defines
Internet users as those 3 years or older who 'currently use' the
Internet. The CNNIC defines the Internet user as a Chinese
citizen, aged 6 or above, who uses the Internet at least one hour
per week.
Other market researchers and market research organizations have
their own definitions. For example, Nielsen Online in its
reports presents two figures for the Internet users: the first is
"Active Internet User", which is defined as the number of users that
viewed the Internet at least once during the last month, and the other
figure is, of course, the total universe estimate of Internet users
in a country, region, or city.
We believe that a definition must be as general and as simple as
possible. Therefore, for analyzing and comparing Internet users on a global
scale, IWS adopts as its benchmark a broad definition and defines
an Internet User as anyone currently in capacity to use the
Internet. In our opinion, there are only two requirements for
a person to be considered an Internet User:
(1) The person must have available access to an Internet connection point, and
(2) The person must have the basic knowledge required to use web technology.
That's it. No need to make complex something that is really
quite simple. In many Third World countries one same Internet
connection may be shared by many individual users. Due to this
reason, Internet users generally outnumber the amount of Internet
access subscribers and also outnumber the telephone lines
available in each country.
The Internet today offers users more options for access, for example:
mobile, G2, G3, and so forth. Our definition and stats (statistics)
consider ALL the ways a user or a subscriber connects. Internet World
Stats numbers represent the "universe" of Internet users in any region,
country or territory. These figures are useful for estimating Internet
market size at a global, regional or local scale.
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1.2 INTERNET
GROWTH
In order to establish
the relative growth rate of the Internet on a global basis, we
compare the current (latest) Internet usage figures for each
country or region with the year 2000, our baseline year for Internet
usage figures, and express this ratio as a percentage. For information on the
Historic Internet Growth data please
click here,
a new page will open. For the
Current Internet World Usage Statistics, visit this
page.
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1.3 INTERNET
PENETRATION RATE
The Internet Penetration Rate corresponds to the percentage of
the total population of a given country or region that uses the
Internet. Internet users are defined in 1.1. No adjustments have
been made for infants or illiteracy in the Internet penetration
rate calculations. Indeed very few countries have 100% literacy,
Norway is one of them. Regarding the children, they are early
adopters, when given the chance to surf the Internet.
For countries with penetration rates above 50%, the data
will be marked in bold letters in the corresponding pages.
The list of the countries with Internet Penetration Rates over 50% may be
found here. At
Internet World Stats we support the 50x15 Initiative and invite you
to do so also. Read about this important project for the future growth
of the Internet at the
Digital Divide page.
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1.4 WORLD
POPULATION
It is important to point out that Internet usage and population data go hand
in hand. In order to determine the Internet Penetration Rate (IPR) for
each country and region of the world we require accurate and up-to-date
demographic data. Therefore the great majority of population figures we use
are based on data published by the U.S. Census Bureau, and contained in their
excellent website at:
US Census Bureau, where you can also find detailed demographic information for many
towns and cities for all the countries of the world.
Special note on China: Hong Kong (Xianggang) and Macao (Aomen)
are both part of China, but these territories as well as Taiwan are reported
separately for Internet Usage Statistical purposes. Therefore the total estimated
population for China mainland has been adjusted accordingly in our statistical
tables and charts.
Special note on Mexico: For statistical reasons, and following the
United Nations Statistical Department, Mexico has been included together with
the seven Central American countries. See
United Nations Statistics
Division methods
and classifications of macro geographical (continental) regions,
geographical sub-regions, and selected economic and other
groupings. Please take note that the region of North America
comprises Northern America, the Caribbean, and Central America.
Likewise, Greenland has been included in North America.
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1.5 SOURCES FOR
THE STATISTICS
The data displayed at Internet World Stats comes from various information sources:
mainly from the following Data Research Sources and the following organizations: The Nielsen Company, from the International Telecommunications
Union (ITU).
Additional sources are the GfK
Group, the Computer Industry
Almanac, the
CIA Fact Book, local NIC, local ISP, other public such as official Internet
regulating agencies, and direct information from trustworthy and
reliable research private sources. Nielsen Onlines's data corresponds
to the home plus work panel current digital media total universe
estimate. For growth comparison purposes, usage stats from
ITU for the
year 2000 are utilized as "benchmark", when available, as explained above in
1.2.
The Nielsen Company is a global standard for Internet
audience measurement and analysis and is the industry's premier
source for online advertising intelligence. This service covers 70 percent
of the world's Internet usage (previously known as Nielsen//NetRatings)
offers syndicated Internet and digital media research reports and
custom-tailored data to help companies gain valuable insight into
their business. For more information, please visit The Nielsen Company.
The International Telecommunications Union
(ITU) is an international
organization established in 1865, which today is part of
the United Nations. For further details and information,
please visit their web site at www.itu.int.
The Internet usage and population data presented here are the best
estimates available, however a reasonable margin of error should
be allowed for. Please refer to our Disclaimer in 1.9.
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1.6 COUNTRY CODES
The ISO 3166-1 English short country names and codes are used in
the IWS website.
As of 23 July 2003 the ISO 3166-1 country code elements for
Serbia and Montenegro are:
CS (Alpha-2 code)
SCG
(Alpha-3 code)
891
(Numeric-3 code)
The code elements YU and YUG representing Yugoslavia are
obsolete now, and their use in applications of ISO 3166-1 should
be phased out. The deletion of Yugoslavia from ISO 3166-1 also
leads to the exclusion of the name in ISO 3166-3. See the
official ISO country list here.
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1.7 GROSS NATIONAL INCOME (GNI) World Bank Atlas
Method
In calculating Gross
National Income (GNI—formerly referred to as GNP) and GNI
per capita in U.S. dollars for certain operational purposes,
the World Bank uses the Atlas conversion factor. The
purpose of the Atlas conversion factor
is to reduce the impact of
exchange rate fluctuations in the cross-country comparison of
national incomes.
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Following current statistical practice,
the World Bank has recently adopted the new terminology in line
with the 1993 System of National Accounts (SNA. The changes in
terms are listed below.
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Previous terminology
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New terminology
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Gross national product, GNP
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Gross national income, GNI
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GNP per capita
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GNI per capita
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Private consumption
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Household final consumption
expenditure
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General government
consumption
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General government final consumption
expenditure
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Gross domestic investment
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Gross capital formation
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Many countries continue to
compile their national accounts according to the 1968 SNA, but
more and more are adopting the 1993 SNA. A few low-income
countries still use concepts from older SNA guidelines, including
valuations such as factor cost, in describing major economic
aggregates. In general, the definitions under the 1993 SNA
guidelines for these indicators remain as before, and only the
terminology has changed. Exceptions are: GNI in constant prices,
which differs from GNP in that it also includes terms of trade
adjustment; and gross capital formation which now includes a
third category of capital formation: net acquisition of
valuables. Included in gross capital formation under the 1993 SNA
are capital outlays on defense establishments that may be used by
the general public, such as schools, airfields, and hospitals.
These expenses were treated as consumption in the earlier version
of the SNA.
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1.8
REPRODUCTION OF THE STATISTICS
The content of this website is intellectual property of its
owner. Data from this web site may be cited freely for academic
use and by teachers for classes or course material, giving due
credit to the original data sources and establishing an active
link back to InternetWorldStats.com. However, the use of our graphs, tables, and/or
statistics for commercial, business or other purposes requires
a licence. To obtain a licence, please contact the website editor.
For full information about copyright law, registration, and
licensing, visit U.S. Copyright
Center.
For citing information sources, we recommend following
the Duke University
Guidelines. We also
recommend reading the following article, from the University of Texas,
before using materials from the Internet.
1.9 DISCLAIMER
Most of the data in this site comes from independent sources,
found displayed freely in the wide world web. Here is a sample of
our information sources. Other data has been investigated and retrieved
directly by our staff. All the information has been consolidated
by IWS, giving due credit to the corresponding original sources
when these are known, and establishing a link back if possible.
IWS provides and published the data and displays statistics in
good faith but does not guarantee the accuracy or provenience.
Likewise IWS is not responsible for the use given to this
information. The Internet usage and population data are best estimates
available and a reasonable margin of error should be allowed for,
as is usual for all statistical work.
In the event that any owner of the information cited or the
sources opposes the publication of specific data, please let us
know by advising our webmaster. We will promptly remove said data
from our web site.
Visitors please take note that for statistical purposes Mexico
has been included in the Central American countries statistics,
according to the United Nations Statistics
Division methods
and classifications of macro geographical (continental) regions,
geographical sub-regions, and selected economic and other
groupings. Turkey is included in the European statistics.
The designations employed and the presentation of material at
this site do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever
on our part concerning the legal status of any country,
territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the
delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.
The assignment of countries or areas to specific groupings is
for statistical convenience and does not imply any assumption
regarding political or other affiliation of countries or
territories by the United Nations or by this web page.
To this date, no confirmed figures for Internet Usage have been
found for the following regions and territories of the world,
some are very small and some are uninhabited. This does not affect
significantly the overall statistical results:
AFRICA
1- Sahara (Western)
AMERICAS
2- Saint Pierre and Michelot
ASIA
3- Korea, North - KP
EUROPE
4 - Svalbard and Jan Mayen Islands
OCEANIA
5 - Antarctica - AQ
6 - Bouvet Island - BV
7 - British Indian Ocean Territory - IO
8 - Chistmas Island - CX
9 - Pitcairn Islands - PN
10 - South Georgia & South Sandwich Islands
11 - Terres Australes
12 - Territories of Australia
13 - Other Smaller Territories.
Forwarding of information on Internet Usage for the above
locations will be appreciated.
Hypertext
Links
This site contains links to sites operated by third parties over
which we have no control. IWS (Internet World Stats) makes
no representations whatsoever about any other Web site that you
may access through this one. Links imply neither that IWS
is affiliated with or otherwise endorses any third parties nor
that it is legally authorized to use any trademark, trade name,
logo, or copyright symbol displayed in or accessible through the
links, or that any linked site is authorized to use any
trademark, trade name, logo, or copyright symbol of
IWS.
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2.
REGIONAL AND
INDIVIDUAL COUNTRY DIRECTORY
The second statistical section is
the world regional country pages, an international directory
featuring over 233 countries and regions of the world, organized
into several hundreds of web pages. Individual country and regional pages feature
maps, profiles, area information, and links to local search directories for
the corresponding countries and regions.
Starting in 2010, the Individual country pages will be expanded in order to
include, in addition to the Internet Indicators, telecommunication industry
news summaries, and e-Commerce country data and news. This change will take
some time to complete, because this additional information at Internet World
Stats dot com involves updating and creating nearly one thousand pages
of new content, and uploading it to the IWS website.
The best way to find a specific country is to go directly to
the alphabetical
country list and
from there to click on the specific country name. This
alphabetical country list has been enhanced with the symbol for
each country or region, the current number of Internet users and
the IP Count.
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2.1 COUNTRY DATA AND SOCIAL WEB
Each country (or region) entry has a header or data box with the
following specific information:
Country flag.
Country name.
ISO 3166 short code.
Current estimated population for 2010.
Area in square kilometers (sq km) of the country or
territory.
Country or territory capital city.
Capital city population.
Internet users of the country or region.
Date and source of the information.
Internet penetration for the country. This line will
be in bold for countries or
regions where the penetration rate is over 50%.
Facebook subscribers (or users)
are shown in green, when available.
In the extent that Facebook (Social Web) usage data becomes
available, this
information will be included in each country data box. Number of
Internet
users comes from various sources: ITU, each country's official telecommunications
regulating agencies, local market research companies and from other trustworthy
independent survey sources.
See two country "data box" examples below:
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  CHINA
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CN - 1,330,141,295 population (2010) - Country Area: 9,806,391
sq km
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Capital city: Beijing - population 7,724,932
(2007)
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420,000,000 Internet users as of June/10, 31.6%
penetration, per CNNIC.
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24,060 Facebook users on August31/10,
0.0% penetration rate.
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 S W E D E N
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SE - 9,074,055 population (2010) - Country Area: 449,965 sq
km
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Capital city: Stockholm - population 1,279,658
(2007)
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8,397,900 Internet users as of June/10, 92.5%
penetration, per ITU.
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3,976,820 Facebook users on August 31/10, 43.8% penetration
rate.
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2.2 COUNTRY
LISTS
The best way to quickly find any one of the 233+ countries
included in the site is to go to the country alphabetical list, and to click on the country name.
A country list by geographical areas is also available. Another list is available showing
the countries ranked according to the latest "Digital Access
Index" data.
The digital access index is a vital reference for governments,
international development agencies, non-governmental
organizations and the private sector to assess national
conditions regarding information and communications technology
(ICT) in each country.
Special note on
Mexico and Turkey: For statistical purposes and consistency,
and no other reasons, Mexico is included in the Central
American countries statistics, according to the United Nations Statistics
Division methods
and classifications of macro geographical (continental) regions,
geographical sub-regions, and selected economic and other
groupings. Turkey has been included in the European Countries as of October, 2005 because it is a
candidate state for joining the European Union.
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2.3 COMPOSITION
OF MACRO GEOGRAPHICAL (CONTINENTAL) REGIONS
For the grouping of the countries and regions included in this
web site we follow the United Nations Department of Economical
and Social Affairs Classification, which may be seen here.
Special Note on country name modifications:
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Current
Name
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Symbol
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Old Name
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Burkina Faso
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BF
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previously listed as Upper
Volta
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Cambodia
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KH
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previously listed as
Democratic Kampuchea
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Cote d'Ivoire
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CI
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previously listed as Ivory
Coast
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Democratic Republic of the
Congo
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CD
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previously listed as
Zaire
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Hong Kong SAR
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HK
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HK is a Special
Administrative Region of China
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Macao SAR
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MO
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MO is a Special Administrative Region of
China
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Montenegro
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ME
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previously listed as Serbia and
Montenegro, SC
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Myanmar
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MM
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previously listed as
Burma
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Serbia
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RS
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previously listed as Serbia and
Montenegro, SC
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Sri Lanka
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LK
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previously listed as
Ceilan
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Timor-Leste
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TP
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previously listed as East
Timor
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2.4 ECONOMIC
DATA
The main source for economic data and statistics is the
World Bank.
Gross National Income per capita (GNI p.c.) is shown for most
countries, if available. Details here.
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2.5 BROADBAND
DATA
Broadband or high speed Internet is generally defined as a
transmission capacity that is faster than primary rate ISDN, at
1.5 or 2.0 Mbit/s. 256 kbit/s is generally taken as the minimum
speed, according to Recommendation I.113 of the ITU
Standardization Sector. In some countries 128 kbit/s is taken as
the minimum speed and in some statistics ISDN usage is included
in the broadband figures.
Broadband Internet access worldwide is mainly by means of Cable
or DSL lines. This type of access is gaining more subscribers
each day. IWS is now publishing broadband subscriber data
for each country or region of the world, as such figures become
available.
See broadband news here.
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2.6 LANGUAGE
DATA
The Internet is a Global Village with no physical frontiers, however it is divided
by the different languages spoken in each country or region.
We have researched the top ten languages
spoken by the Internet Users and published this information.
People speaking the same language show an inclination to form
their own online community no matter what country they happen to
live in. The latest estimated number of people online in each major
language group may be seen here.
2.7 SOCIAL WEB DATA
The most successful social web in Internet, having reached more than 700 million
subscribers, is undoubttedly Facebook. We have researched the Facebook users
worldwide and published this information in the regional pages. You can see the
number of Facebook subscribers for each country, updated quarterly (every three
months). There are also stats tables, view the Facebook Stats .
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5.
INTERNET COACHING FREE LIBRARY
The Internet Coaching Free Library
The object of this section is
to offer free help, tips, advice, and guidence (coaching) about
the Internet to the visitors of our website. It is a free
resource and features useful articles and links on the subjects
listed below:
Business
Managing Tips
Business
Opportunities
Blog
Coaching
Coaching
for Success
Coaching for
Internet Beginners
Global Internet
Languages
International
Markets
Internet
Advertising
Internet and
Broadband
Internet
Marketing
Industry
Markets Research
Internet
Security
Internet
Writing
Personal
Success Coaching
Press Release
Coaching
Search Engine
Marketing
Search Engine
Optimization
Social
Web Marketing
Website
Analytics
Website Design
Coaching
Your suggestions regarding
the articles are welcomed. Tell us what articles you liked best,
and what additional content you would like us to publish.
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index
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6.
SEARCH ENGINE STRATEGIES
Here is a search resource that
you can use for quickly finding selected content in this website:
There are several pages containing articles about Search Engines and
coaching on this subject, refering to Internet Marketing. The pages and links
below will help find them. Each page name contains the description of the
content:
7. GOOD STATISTICAL
PRACTICES
United Nations Statistical
Division
We believe that high quality international
statistics, accessible for all, are a fundamental element of global information
systems, and that to maintain the trust in international statistics, their
production is to be impartial and strictly based on the highest professional
standards. In this order of ideas we try to apply good practices and standards
as recommended by the UN Statistical Division.
Other useful website sections to visit are:
The
Webmaster Tools and eMarketing Tips
The Software
Gallery
This section features several recommended software programs.
You are invited to visit the page and make use of the free
trials.
Again, your support o, we try to apply the good practices as
contains links to statisticsf the sponsors helps keep this website
free.
Pop-Unders Gone
All pop-unders on this site have been removed. Visitors
will
now experience a more enjoyable navigation during their
visit.
No more pop-unders will show up in the future. Sometimes the
cache your PC keeps in old versions of the pages you
visited,
so be sure to refresh any old IWS pages to be pop-under
free
IWS believes that you should never be tricked into
installing
software on your computer. We also believe that external
pop-ups, pop-unders, and exit-pops are all intrusive and
annoying to the Internet user.
Browser Tips: if you want a good and useful pop-up
blocker,
get the Google toolbar. It is Free and has several useful
features,
and displays the Google Page Rank. We also
suggest using Chrome, Google's new and fast browser.
Another good alternative we recommend to block pop-ups
and pop-unders, and decrease the spyware and virus you
pick up while surfing the web, is to use a browser that
stops the pops and is safe and secure like the new
Mozilla Foundation Firefox
. Already over 500
million
free copies of Firefox have been downloaded. We also
suggest using Opera, another fast browser that blocks
all the pop-ups and pop-unders and is free to download.
Other Internet Explorer compatible enhancements that
also block pop-ups are: the avantbrowser, and the
Maxthon , both are freeware that make use of the basic
Microsoft Internet Explorer engine.
NEW WEB LOG (Blog)
A new Blog has been added to report new stats,
changes,
post Internet news and inform updates regarding statistics at
the site.
This new blog is a useful resource. To see
the old blog,
click this Old Blog, and a new window will open with the web log.
Older archive blog news are available at Blog 2,
Blog 3
and Blog 4
8. ABREVIATIONS USED IN
THIS WEBSITE
CIA = The US Central Intelligence Agency
C-I-A = The Computer Industry Almanac
EMEA = Generally refers to the Europe, Middle East, and Africa region
FB = Facebook
G8 = Refers to the G8 Group of countries, integrated by Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, United Kingdom and United States.
ITU = International Telecommunications Union.
IWS = Internet World Stats.
" GNI p.c. " is an economic indicator that
means
"Gross National Income Per Capita". It corresponds to the
country's Gross Income divided by its total population
(number of inhabitants). It's the old GNP per capita.
MENA = Refers to Middle East plus North of Africa countries.
NIC = Network Information Center, part of the Domain Name System (DNS) of the Internet.
OECD = Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Developement.
p.r. = penetration rate
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index
10. TRAVEL STATS SECTION
(NEW)
CIA = The US Central Intelligence Agency
C-I-A = The Computer Industry Almanac
EMEA = Generally refers to the Europe, Middle East, and Africa region
FB = Facebook
G8 = Refers to the G8 Group of countries, integrated by Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, United Kingdom and United States.
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For contacting us, please
send your email to:
info "at" internetworldstats.com
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The Internet World Stats web site was created on March 25, 2002 by Enrique de
Argaez, MBA, PE, who is the editor, webmaster and owner. He speaks English and
Spanish. His current activities include Internet Market Research, Internet Publishing
and consulting work. He is also the Managing Director of his company, Miniwatts
de Colombia Ltda., located at Calle 140 # 7-C-10, Local 41, in Bogota, Colombia.
His telephone number in Colombia is: +57-1-603-8155.