ITU:40 Percent of the Global Population is Online

As per the ITU (International Telecommunication Union) survey released on 7 July 2013, approximately 40 percent of the Global population or 2.7 billion people are online in 2013. In India it is 13 percent. In the developing world, 31 per cent of the population is online in comparison to 77 per cent in the developed world.

Most governments have given broadband penetration utmost importance. Mobile broadband is expected to dominate the choice of technology.

As per the ITU survey, a U.N. agency, the highest Internet penetration rate was detected in Europe, where 75 per cent of the population has access to Internet. The United States, with 61 per cent penetration, stands was found the second highest amongst regions with 61 percent penetration. Africa has nearly 16 per cent of its citizens using the Net while in Asia-Pacific region one out of every three citizens has access to the Internet.

ITU survey found that 37 per cent of all women are online at global level as compared with 41 per cent of all men. Approximately, 1.5 billion men and 1.3 billion women have access to the Internet. According to the ITU, 41 per cent or nearly 750 million households have access to the Internet by 2013 at Global level. In the developed world, 78 per cent of households have got the Internet.

In 2013, approximately 1.1 billion homes across the world, of which 90 per cent are in the developing world don’t have access to the Internet. According to a McKinsey & Co. report released in December 2012, Internet users will be doubled in India from 160 million to 330 million by 2015. India’s National Telecom Policy envisages 175 million broadband subscribers by 2017 and 600 million by 2020.