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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 (2) 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.
As of March 1st, 2017, we will use demographic (population)
based on data published by the United Nations (UN), and contained
in their excellent website at:
United Nations - Population Division,
where you can also find detailed demographic information for the world and
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 Greenland has been included in North America.
Special note on the term: Latin America and the Caribbean:
this term is used here in its broad sense and refers to all the geographic
part of the Americas south of the United States, and includes English-speaking
countries such as Belize, in Central America, Falkland Islands in
South America, as well as Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana. For
further information on contemporary and traditional usage of the
term Latin America, please see Latin America
.
Special note on Country Codes: For practical reasons, and
following a logical approach, we use and recommend the use of
standardized symbols to identify the various countries. For this purpose,
ISO-3166 is the norm we follow, see the
International Organization Statistics
Division .
This ISO-standard is used throughout all the IWS website, since its creation in 2001.
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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 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. Read about 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
creator, Enrique De Argaez. Data from this web site may be used
freely for academic and educational use only, by teachers for classes
or as course material, citing and giving due credit to the original data
source and establishing an active link back to www.internetworldstats.com. For commercial use, for business purposes, in
publicity or other for profit use, the use of our material such
as graphs, tables, and statistics requires a copyright licence or
permission.
PERMISSIONS:
Please keep in mind that all the content of this website is covered by Copyright Law
and International Treaties. All the Copyright Permission requests and License
Inquiries should be sent directly to
copyrights at(@) internetworldstats.com. For details,
see the copyrights page.
Kindly provide as much information as possible to help us review
your permission request. This should include your publication title,
author(s), page numbers, print runs, all rights and languages required
along with a copy of the material as you wish to use it. We will then
endeavour to respond as quickly as possible to discuss your permission
requirements.
For full information about copyright law, registration, and
licensing, visit U.S. Copyright Center.
We also recommend reading the following article, from the University of
Texas, before using materials from the Internet. For more information on copyright law,
visit 10 Big Myths about copyright
explained.
1.9 DISCLAIMERS
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:
AMERICAS
1- Saint Pierre and Michelot
ASIA
2- Korea, North - KP
EUROPE
3 - Svalbard and Jan Mayen Islands
OCEANIA
4 - Antarctica - AQ
5 - Bouvet Island - BV
6 - British Indian Ocean Territory - IO
7 - Chistmas Island - CX
8 - Pitcairn Islands - PN
9 - South Georgia & South Sandwich Islands
10 - Terres Australes
11 - Territories of Australia
12 - Other Smaller Territories.
Your forwarding of information on Internet Usage for the above
locations will be appreciated indeed.
Hypertext Links
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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.
FTC DISCLAIMER ON ADVERTISING
This site contains affiliate links, which means we receive monetary compensation
from third parties, if you make a purchase using the links and banners on this
website to buy products and services. These commissions help cover the cost of
operating the website, such as hosting, designs, mainenance and research.
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CHINA
S W E D E N
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 fluent English and Spanish. His current
activities include Internet Market Research, Internet Publishing
and consulting work. He can be located at Carrera 7-B # 134-B-66, in the city of Bogota, Colombia.
His telephone number in Colombia is: +57-1-388-6325 and his mobile phone is: +57 305-314-2748
and his Skype call address(ID) is: "enrique.de.argaez"
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