Digital 2026: internet users pass the 6 billion mark
Our Digital 2026 Global Overview Report is packed with big numbers and impressive milestones, but perhaps the most important headline is the fact that there are now more than 6 billion people using the internet.
Kepios’s analysis of the latest data from a selection of the world’s most reputable reporting authorities – including the ITU and GSMA Intelligence – shows that 73.2 percent of the world’s total population is online today, indicating that close to three-quarters of all the people on Earth are now online.
And internet adoption continues to grow, too, with Kepios’s analysis indicating that the global user total has increased by 294 million over the past 12 months, delivering year-on-year growth of 5.1 percent.
Major revisions to internet user numbers
Regular readers may notice that our latest adoption figure is significantly higher than the 68.7 percent penetration figure we published just a few months ago, in our Digital 2025 July Global Statshot Report.
However, as we’ll explore in more detail below, it’s important to stress that this apparent “jump” is largely attributable to significant revisions in the internet adoption rates reported by official bodies in both India and China.
And as a result, readers should not interpret changes in our internet user figures as implying that hundreds of millions of people have “suddenly” come online in just the past 90 days, because that simply isn’t the case.
Regardless of when people actually came online though, the net outcome is still the same: more than 6 billion people now use the internet.
And strikingly, well over 2 billion of those global users – more than one-third of the total – live in just two countries.
1 billion Indians online
One of the biggest changes we’ve seen in this year’s data affects internet user figures in the world’s most populous nation.
More specifically, a recent report from India’s National Statistics Office (NSO) indicates that 7 in 10 Indians are now online, with the latest 70.0 percent penetration figure more than 10 percentage points higher than the 58.4 percent figure reported by Kantar and the IAMAI just a few months ago.
It’s important to highlight that the NSO’s figure represents internet use amongst Indians aged 15 and above, and there’s a realistic possibility that internet adoption amongst younger age groups may be lower than this adult average.
However, the same study reports that 86.3 percent of all Indian households now have some form of internet connection, so – while younger Indians may not own the devices necessary to access the internet on their own – there’s a realistic possibility that Indian children below the age of 15 are regularly accessing the internet using family devices.
For example, younger children may use a parent’s phone to watch YouTube videos.
And globally, there’s plenty of evidence to support this hypothesis, even amongst the youngest of audiences.
For example, “Baby Shark” is still top of YouTube’s all-time most watched ranking, and has continued to see its total view count grow over the past few months.
Admittedly, some of Baby Shark’s views may have come from adults, but anyone over the age of five who has had to endure more than a single sitting of the song’s relentless “do do do do do” would probably come to the conclusion that the majority of the clip’s 16 billion views [yes, really] will likely have been generated by infants.
And for added context, half of YouTube’s all-time top 10 is made up of nursery rhymes that appear to have been designed for the world’s youngest audiences.
Meanwhile, several of the world’s largest YouTube accounts are infant-oriented channels based in India, notably ChuChu TV and Infobells.
Of course, some people may debate whether this kind of activity should be included in studies of internet adoption and use, but given the huge bandwidth associated with online video consumption – and its associated impact on the environment – we believe that it’s important to factor the online activities of younger audiences too, regardless of what those activities involve.
Moreover, the guidance we received from the ITU was to apply the NSO’s 70 percent figure to the population as a whole, because it is likely the most representative indicator of national internet adoption and use today.
So, while it’s important to acknowledge the caveats highlighted above, the latest data indicate that more than 1 billion people in India now use the internet.
More than 9 in 10 people in China now online
Meanwhile, CNNIC’s latest (56th) report on internet adoption in China indicates that a hefty 91.6 percent of individuals in the country now use the internet or internet-powered services.
Interestingly, this particular figure is reported in an annex at the end of the main report, but based on our conversations with the ITU – the primary body responsible for collecting “official” internet adoption figures on behalf of the United Nations – it seems that this annex figure is indeed the most representative value for overall internet adoption in China.
This revised figure lifts the number of internet users in China to almost 1.3 billion, meaning that China is now home to roughly 21.5 percent of the global connected population, equating to more than 1 in 5 of the world’s internet users.
And as a result, even though Eastern Asia also includes the world’s least connected country (more on that in a moment), the region is now home to almost a quarter (24.6 percent) of all the world’s internet users.
More than 2.5 billion people still offline
But despite these impressive gains in reported internet use, it’s important to stress that more than 1 in 4 people around the world remain offline at the time of writing.
Kepios’s latest analysis indicates that a total of 2.21 billion people do not yet use the internet in October 2025, with the majority of the world’s offline population living in Southern Asia and Central Africa.
Data indicate that India is home to the greatest number of people who do not currently use the internet, with official figures suggesting that more than 440 million people remain offline in the Southern Asian state.
Neighbouring Pakistan ranks second, with almost 140 million people yet to come online in the country, while Nigeria ranks third, with 130 million people offline.
Meanwhile, despite the country’s official internet adoption rate now exceeding 90 percent, China is still home to the world’s fourth-largest offline population, and close to 120 million people remain offline in the world’s second most populous nation.
On a relative basis, North Korea remains the least connected nation on Earth, with a government-imposed ban ensuring that less than one percent of the country’s citizens have access to the internet today.
Meanwhile, a further eight nations see internet adoption languish at 20 percent or below, with barely 11 percent of people in Burundi using the internet today.
The Central African Republic isn’t far behind though, with 88 percent of the country’s population still offline, while 86.8 percent of the populations of South Sudan and Chad are yet to come online too.
Women are still underrepresented online
Furthermore, at a global level, data shows that women are still disproportionately less likely to use the internet.
Kepios analysis indicates that 70.7 percent of women around the world are now online, but that figure still lags behind the 75.7 percent of men who use the internet today.
It’s important to acknowledge that this “digital gender gap” has narrowed over recent years, but the latest data still suggest that – relatively speaking – men are roughly 7 percent more likely to use the internet than women, and there are still nearly 240 million more men using the internet than there are women online.
For comparison, the United Nations World Populations Prospects data indicates that overall populations are far more balanced, with women accounting for 49.7 percent of the global population, and men accounting for 50.3 percent.
And for added perspective, across the global population as a whole, men only outnumber women by 43 million, which suggests that the “digital gender gap” is more than five times larger than the gender gap in the overall population.
And this digital gender imbalance is evident in our latest social media data too.
Kepios analysis of ad reach data published by the world’s largest social media platforms indicates that 54.4 percent of social media users around the world are male, compared with just 45.6 percent for women [note that representative data are only available for binary genders].
On an absolute basis, this means that male social media users outnumber female users by almost half a billion – a full 10 times more than might be expected based on those global population figures.
It’s worth noting that Kepios’s analysis suggests that “false” and “duplicate” social media accounts are significantly more likely to be “male” than “female”, which may serve to inflate the size of this social media gender gap.
However, even with that caveat in mind, the data clearly illustrates that women remain meaningfully underrepresented in online populations.
Rural communities are still underconnected
People living in rural locations are also significantly less likely to use the internet today, and in fact, this “location gap” is even more pronounced than the gender gap.
Kepios analysis indicates that just 54.5 percent of the world’s rural populations are online today, which is markedly lower than the 86.5 percent internet adoption figure that we see amongst urban populations.
For perspective, the United Nation’s latest population data indicates that 58.4 percent of all the people on Earth now live in urban centres, but data suggest that these urban areas account for 69.1 percent of the world’s total internet population.
There may be various reasons for this imbalance, but – in many cases – a lack of internet adoption coincides with a similar lack of access to other core infrastructure.
For example, in Ethiopia – where more than three-quarters of the country’s 136 million inhabitants live in rural areas – barely half of the population has access to electricity and basic drinking water services, and these challenges are particularly prevalent in rural areas.
These challenging realities may go a long way towards explaining why the vast majority of the country’s 100+ million rural inhabitants do not yet use the internet, but understanding the potential causes of low internet use does little to mitigate the associated impact.
And sadly, this is a story that plays out across much of Sub-Saharan Africa, where barely 1 in 3 people – just 36 percent of the total population – uses the internet today.
The cost of internet access
Another important consideration when exploring lower levels of internet access is the cost of going online.
The latest analysis by the ITU suggests that both fixed internet and cellular data plans remain prohibitively high in many parts of the world, meaning that many people need to rely on services like free public WiFi to go online.
For example, the ITU’s analysis indicates that the cheapest non-promotional cellular data plan in the Central African Republic costs the equivalent of more than a quarter (26.7 percent) of the typical monthly income, which may be one of the primary reasons why the country’s internet adoption rate is a dispiritingly low 12 percent.
Cellular data isn’t much more “affordable” in Venezuela either, but despite the cheapest non-promotional mobile data package in the country costing the equivalent of more than 20 percent of typical monthly income, internet penetration in the Southern American country still exceeds 60 percent.
Having said that though, separate data from the World Bank indicates that almost a quarter of the country’s internet users – 23.7 percent – only uses free WiFi to go online, which is one of the highest rates we see for this particular data point in the World Bank’s dataset.
And – unsurprisingly – there’s a meaningful overlap between the countries where cellular data is the most expensive (as compared with people’s incomes), and the countries that struggle with the lowest levels of internet adoption.
Once again though, broader infrastructural challenges likely play an important role in pushing up the price of internet access in these areas, so the affordability of cellular data is itself often a consequence of other underlying issues, rather than being the “root cause” of limited internet access.
The quality of internet access
But even when people do get online, the quality of their “connected experience” can vary significantly, depending on their location.
Reassuringly, the latest Speedtest data from Ookla shows that cellular data connection speeds have accelerated meaningfully over recent months, and – at a worldwide level – most internet users now enjoy download speeds in excess of 90 Mbps.
For context, guidance from Netflix suggests that’s sufficient to stream six different 4K movies at the same time, but other sources suggest that four concurrent 4K streams might be a more realistic figure at this bandwidth.
Fixed connections continue to offer a slightly faster internet experience compared with cellular data connections though, with Ookla’s latest analysis pointing to a global median of 104Mbps for downloads via fixed connections.
Having said that, these median values are not representative of everybody’s online experience, and geography plays a crucial role in determining each user’s “lived” internet speed.
Mobile internet accelerates
Overall, the speed of cellular data downloads has jumped by more than 60 percent over the past year, which is five times faster than the increases we see across fixed connections.
The United Arab Emirates tops Ookla’s mobile speed charts for August 2025, with users in the Gulf state enjoying median download bandwidth of 614.42Mbps.
Some of the UAE’s GCC peers place well too, with Qatar’s mobile median reaching 511.35Mbps, and Kuwait enjoying a media of 414.56Mbps.
Meanwhile, median mobile download bandwidth now exceeds 200Mbps in another four countries: Brazil, South Korea, Bahrain, and Bulgaria.
It’s a very different picture at the other end of the rankings though, with at least three countries still battling with median download speeds below 20Mbps.
Bolivia places last in Ookla’s latest ranking, but it’s important to note that data are only available for 103 countries, and there’s a strong likelihood that some countries will face even slower download speeds than those seen in Bolivia.
Meanwhile, most mobile internet users in Belarus and Eswatini also struggle with sub-20Mbps connections, while the median download speed in Pakistan and Syria languishes below 25Mbps.
Fixed broadband connections
Ookla’s data shows a more modest increase in fixed data connection speeds, with the typical user now enjoying bandwidth of 104.43Mbps.
Having said that, the current global figure is still more than 11 percent faster than the median speed we saw this time last year, and it’s also more than 26 percent faster than the value we saw two years ago.
Once again though, the data reveal significant differences by geography.
For example, the 394.30Mbps median download speed enjoyed by fixed internet users in Singapore is more than 100 times faster than the 3.35Mbps endured by fixed internet users in Syria, and the 3.48 Mbps that users in Cuba must contend with.
Returning to the top of the rankings, the speed of the median fixed connection now exceeds 300Mbps in a total of six countries, while the top 10 all enjoy speeds in excess of 250Mbps.
Average speeds still fall below 10Mbps in at least four countries though, while 18 countries in Ookla’s latest dataset struggle with median fixed bandwidth below 20Mbps.
Internet access by device
Meanwhile, trends in GWI’s ongoing survey reveal that the world’s “digital device mix” continues to evolve.
Mobile phone use is now almost all-pervasive, with 96 percent of online adults saying that they use some kind of mobile handset for at least some of their online activities.
It’s worth noting that “non”-smartphones still account for at least some of that mobile activity though, with GWI’s Q2 2025 survey revealing that 4.5 percent of connected adults still use a feature phone to go online at least some of the time.
However, with 93.7 percent of GWI’s respondents saying that they use a smartphone for at least some of their connected time, the data reveal that more than half of those people who use a feature phone to go online also use a smartphone.
Moreover, roughly three-quarters of feature phone internet users go online via at least one other device in addition to a feature phone, with the data indicating that just 1.2 percent of internet users only go online using a feature phone.
And for added perspective here, it’s interesting to note that younger users account for the largest share of feature phone internet users, with connected adults between the ages of 16 and 34 accounting for more than half of this cohort (52.2 percent).
Computer use declines
Meanwhile, the latest research shows that fewer than 6 in 10 connected adults now use computers to access the internet.
GWI’s most recent round of research shows that 59.6 percent of internet users aged 16 and above used a laptop or desktop PC to go online in Q2 2025, with that share figure declining steadily over the past few quarters.
For perspective, in Q2 2023, GWI’s data indicated that 62.9 percent of online adults used a computer for at least some of the internet activities, indicating that – on a relative basis – the use of computers to go online has declined by more than 5 percent over the past two years.
Younger generations are the least likely to use computers for their online activities, with GWI’s data showing that just 56 percent of internet users aged 16 to 24 went online via a laptop or desktop computer during the most recent research period.
Conversely, retirees are considerably more likely to use a computer than any other age group, although it’s important to highlight that the apparent “gap” may be amplified by the smaller sample for this older age group in GWI’s survey audience.
Meanwhile, across all ages, men are roughly 9 percent more likely than women to go online using one of these devices.
Mobiles dominate web access
For added perspective, the latest data from Statcounter indicates that mobile phones account for the lion’s share of web traffic too, with the company’s figures for August 2025 indicating that mobile devices requested 59.14 percent of all web pages service to web browsers.
Meanwhile, laptops and desktops accounted for 39.28 percent of web activity in August 2025, while tablet traffic made up just 1.55 percent of the total.
It’s worth noting that these share figures do tend to fluctuate from month to month though, which is an interesting finding in itself.
For example, the August 2025 figure for mobile’s share of web traffic is actually 4.8 percent lower than the figure for August 2024, and is also markedly below the monthly average that we’ve seen during the past two years.
However, there’s nothing in the data to offer any clues as to why this might be the case, or as to why the mobile-computer split remains so dynamic from month to month.
Having said that, remember that these figures focus solely on web activity, and with mobile apps accounting for the vast majority (more than 90 percent) of connected time on mobile devices, mobile phones’ “full” share of online activity is likely considerably higher than these figures suggest.
Connected wrists
But the move to smaller devices isn’t just evident in the shift from computers to mobile phones.
GWI’s data also reveals that close to 1 in 3 adults – 33.0 percent – now owns some form of “smart wrist” device, up from 31.6 percent this time last year.
The ones to watch
Smart watches are the most popular form of wearable technology today, with 27.8 percent of the world’s online adults reporting ownership of at least one such device in GWI’s Q2 2025 wave of research.
This latest figure is up by almost 2 percentage points since this time last year, which equates to relative year-on-year growth in ownership of 7.3 percent.
However, there’s no obvious pattern to the popularity of these devices by geography.
GWI’s data reveals that people in Croatia are the most likely to own a smart watch, with close to 4 in 10 online adults in the country claiming ownership today.
The UAE and Norway follow close behind though, with both countries seeing ownership rates in excess of 38 percent.
Smart watch ownership rates remain relatively low in Kenya though, with fewer than 1 in 10 online adults saying they own such a device today.
Similarly, smart watches haven’t made much headway in Japan either, with barely 11.6 percent of the nation’s internet users saying that they own a smart watch.
People aged 25 to 44 are the most likely to own smart watches, with women in this age group marginally more likely to claim ownership in GWI’s latest survey.
However, smart watches remain less popular with older generations, with barely 1 in 6 internet users aged 65 and above owning such a device today.
This demographic profile suggests something of a missed opportunity for the tech industry though, especially when we consider these devices’ various health tracking features.
Wristbands still gaining
However, despite their continuing ascent, smart watches haven’t brought about the demise of other kinds of smart wristband.
Indeed, GWI’s data reveals that smart wristbands like Google’s Fitbit have enjoyed renewed popularity over recent months, with 13.6 percent of the world’s online adults saying they owned at least one such “tracker” device.
Smart wristbands appear to be most popular amongst Chinese internet users, with more than 1 in 4 online adults in the country reporting ownership in GWI’s Q2 2025 wave of research.
These devices have also built a meaningful user base in Spain and Poland though, with ownership rates exceeding 18 percent in both countries.
However, ownership rates remain below 10 percent across various countries, most notably in Southeast Asia, South Korea, and Japan.
Screen scaling
But while the data shows plenty of evidence of a shift towards smaller screens and devices, the opposite is also true, and GWI’s data suggests that connected TVs (CTVs) are becoming one of the most important access devices amongst the world’s internet users.
Indeed, the company’s latest survey indicates that 31.6 percent of online adults used a CTV device to access digital content at least once over the past 30 days, with that figure now well ahead of the figure for tablet devices.
Having said that, the share of online adults accessing digital content via their TV has remained relatively static over the past two years, albeit with minor fluctuations from quarter to quarter.
It’s also interesting to note that there’s no obvious “pattern” to the countries where accessing internet content on a TV is more (or less) popular, with the data offering no clear correlation with factors such as economic development, geographic region, or even median age.
GWI’s data does indicate that younger generations are less likely to use CTVs to access digital content directly, but this is likely because this age group is less likely to own such a device, perhaps because their living arrangements (e.g. shared accommodation) are less amenable to the ownership of large-screen devices.
Indeed, GWI’s data also reveals that fewer than 4 in 10 internet users aged 16 to 24 (39.6 percent) own a “smart” TV today, which is considerably below the overall overage of 49.3 percent.
On the other hand though, older generations appear to have embraced connected TV, with retirees currently the most likely to say they own a smart TV device, at 55.1 percent.
Not all of those device owners are using their CTV sets to access digital content directly though, and GWI’s data indicates that it’s actually the 35 to 44 year old age group where we see the highest incidence of using CTVs for the direct access of digital content.
Disclosure: Simon Kemp is a brand ambassador for GWI.
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