The World in

2011

ICT
Using Internet: 18%
China:28%

FActS AND FiGURES

One third of the worlds population is online

45% of Internet users below the age of 25
Users, developed

Share of Internet users in the total population

2006
Not using Internet: 82%

2011*

Users

Using Internet: 35%

China: 37% India: 10% Other developing countries: 53%

Developed

Developed Developing

India: 6% Other developing countries: 66%

Developing Not using Internet: 65%

Total population: 6.5 billion

Total population: 7 billion

Note: * Estimate Source: ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators database

The world is home to 7 billion people, one third of which are using the Internet. 45% of the worlds Internet users are below the age of 25. Over the last five years, developing countries have increased their share of the worlds total number of Internet users from 44% in 2006, to 62% in 2011. Today, Internet users in China represent almost 25% of the worlds total Internet users and 37% of the developing countries Internet users.
4.5

Internet users by age and by development level, 2011* 4.0

3.5

3.0

Not using Internet Using Internet

64% 70% 77% 66 %

Younger people tend to be more online than older people, in both developed and developing countries. In developing countries, 30% of those under the age of 25 use the Internet, compared to 23% of those 25 years and older. At the same time, 70% of the under 25-yearolds a total of 1.9 billion are not online yet: a huge potential if developing countries can connect schools and increase school enrolment rates.

Billions of people

2.5

2.0

1.5

1.0 29% 0.5 23% 77% Under 25 Over 25 Under 25 Over 25 Under 25 Over 25 71% 30% 36% 23% 34%

0.0

Developed

Developing

World

Note: * Estimate Source: ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators database

The World in 2011 ICT Facts and Figures

Almost

6 billion mobile-cellular subscriptions

7

Active mobile -broadband subscriptions Fixed(wired) - broadband subscriptions Fixed -telephone lines Internet users

Mobile-cellular telephone subscriptions

With 5.9 billion mobile-cellular subscriptions, global penetration reaches 87%, and 79% in the developing world. Mobile-broadband subscriptions have grown 45% annually over the last four years and today there are twice as many mobile-broadband as fixedbroadband subscriptions.

Billions

0 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011*

Note: * Estimate Source: ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators database

Home ICT access, 2011*

74
Penetration developed countries Penetration developing countries
74 71

25

20

1.8 billion households

0.7 billion households with a PC

0.6 billion households with Internet

Note: * Estimate Source: ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators database

Of 1.8 billion households worldwide, one third have Internet access, compared to only one fifth five years ago. In developing countries, 25% of homes have a computer and 20% have Internet access, compared to 20% and 13%, respectively, 3 years ago.

The World in 2011 ICT Facts and Figures

Growth in bandwidth
facilitates broadband uptake
90000

International Internet bandwidth, International Internet bandwidth,GBit/s GBit/s

80000 70000 60000 50000 40000 30000 20000 10000 0

World

World Developed

Developed
Developing Developing

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011*

Note: * Estimate Source: ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators database

International Internet bandwidth, a key factor for providing high-speed Internet access to a growing number of Internet users has grown exponentially over the last five years, from 11000 Gbit/s in 2006, to close to 80000 Gbit/s in 2011. Disparities between regions in terms of available Internet bandwidth per Internet user remain, with on average almost 90000 bit/s of bandwidth per user in Europe, compared with 2000 bit/s per user in Africa.
87395
40000 International Internet bandwidth (bit/s) per Internet user, 2011* 35000 30000 25000 20000 15000 10000 5000 0

International Internet bandwidth (bit/s) per Internet user, 2011*

Africa

Arab States

Asia & Pacific

CIS

Americas

World

Europe

Note: * Estimate Source: ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators database

The World in 2011 ICT Facts and Figures

Active mobile-broadband

subscriptions reach almost 1.2 billion

Countries that offer 2G/3G services commercially, mid-2011*

Availability of 3G Networks

2G only 2G 2G and 3G
3G

90%

45%

2G population coverage 3G population coverage

Note: * Estimate Source: ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators database

A total of 159 economies worldwide have launched 3G services commercially and the number of active mobile-broadband subscriptions has increased to almost 1.2 billion. While people in developed countries usually use mobile-broadband networks in addition to a fixedbroadband connection, mobile-broadband is often the only access method available to people in developing countries. The percentage of the population covered by a 2G mobile-cellular network is twice as high as the population covered by a 3G network. 3G population coverage reached 45% in 2011.

The World in 2011 ICT Facts and Figures

Europe leads the broadband race

60
Fixed (wired)-broadband subscriptions, 2011*

50

Fixed (wired)-broadband

Active mobile-broadband subscriptions, 2011* subscriptions, 2011*

Per 100 inhabitants

40 30 20 10 0 Africa

Active mobile-broadband subscriptions, 2011*

Asia & Pacific Arab States

CIS

World

Americas

Europe

Note: * Estimate Source: ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators database

Top broadband economies, early 2011

Economy Fixed-broadband subscriptions per Economy 100 inhabitants 38.1 37.9 37.7 35.7 35.3 34.1 33.9 33.2 31.8 31.7 31.6 31.5 29.9 29.8 28.6 27.6 27.5 26.9 25.1 24.9 24.9 24.2 24.2 24.2 23.9 Korea (Rep.) Japan Sweden Australia Finland Hong Kong, China Portugal Luxembourg Singapore Austria New Zealand Kuwait Israel Brunei Darussalam Cyprus Italy United Arab Emirates Greece Saudi Arabia Macao, China United Kingdom Spain Denmark United States Ireland Active mobilebroadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants* 91.0 87.8 84.0 82.7 78.1 74.5 72.5 72.1 69.7 67.4 66.2 63.5 62.2 61.4 61.3 59.4 58.4 58.3 57.8 56.1 56.0 55.7 54.7 54.0 47.3

Europe leads in broadband connectivity, with fixed- and mobile-broadband penetration reaching 26% and 54%, respectively. A number of developing countries have been able to leverage mobile-broadband technologies to overcome infrastructure barriers and provide high-speed Internet services to previously unconnected areas. In Africa, mobile-broadband penetration has reached 4%, compared with less than 1% for fixed-broadband penetration. The worlds top broadband economies are from Europe and Asia and the Pacific. In the Republic of Korea mobile-broadband penetration exceeds 90%.

Netherlands Switzerland Denmark Korea (Rep.) Norway Iceland France Luxembourg Sweden Germany United Kingdom Belgium Hong Kong, China Canada Finland United States Malta Japan Estonia Singapore New Zealand Slovenia Australia Macao, China Austria

Note: Excludes economies with populations below 100000 Source: ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators databasee

* Data provided by Wireless Intelligence

The World in 2011 ICT Facts and Figures

Broadband speed matters

Fixed-broadband subscriptions, by speed, early 2011
While almost all fixed-broadband connections in the Republic of Korea provide speeds equal to, or above 10 Mbit/s, broadband users in Ghana, Mongolia, Oman and Venezuela are limited to broadband speeds below 2Mbit/s. An Internet connection with a speed of 256 kbit/s limits the types of applications and services that Internet users can enjoy. Service providers for data-intensive services, such as Video-on-Demand, recommend a minimum speed of 2 Mbit/s. Advertised and real speeds can differ substantially. In some countries, regulatory authorities monitor the speed and quality of broadband services and oblige operators to provide accurate quality-of-service information to end users.
Korea (Rep.) Bulgaria Portugal United Kingdom France Sweden Denmark Singapore United States* Czech Republic Spain Finland Georgia Switzerland Germany Slovak Republic Hungary Slovenia Ireland Estonia Chile United Arab Emirates Turkey Azerbaijan Morocco Serbia Oman Colombia* Tunisia Qatar Jordan Mongolia Venezuela Ghana 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%

10 Mbit/s 10 Mbit/s 2 2 to 10 Mbit/s Mbits/s to < <10 kbit/s to 256 256 kbit/s to <2 < 2Mbit/s Mbit/s

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Note: Refers to advertised speeds. * Data correspond to slightly different speed intervals. Breakdown by speed available only for part of the total fixed (wired)-broadband subscriptions. June 2010 data. Source: ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators database

The World in 2011 ICT Facts and Figures

Fixed broadband prices in developing countries

drop by over 50% in just two years
Fixed-broadband sub-basket
Fixed- telephone sub-basket

150 130 110 90 70 50 30 10 0

234.9 52.2%
112.2

2008 2010

2008 2010 Percentage change (drop) between 2008 and 2010

The ITU ICT Price Basket 1 shows that between 2008 and 2010 ICT services have become more affordable and relative prices came down by an average of 18%, globally. The steepest price drop occurred in developing countries, where fixedbroadband prices dropped by 52.2%. In developing countries, mobilecellular prices, which have substantially dropped over the last decade, fell by a further 22%. The 2010 mobile-cellular sub-basket represented on average 11.4% of monthly GNI per capita, compared to 2% in developed countries. ICT services continue to be more affordable in high-income economies and less affordable in low-income economies. By 2010, the cost of ICT services averaged 1.5% of GNI per capita in developed countries, compared with 17% of GNI per capita in developing countries. In 31 countries all of them highly industrialized economies an entry-level broadband connection costs on average the equivalent of 1% or less of average monthly GNI per capita, while in 19 countries most of them least developed countries a broadband connection costs on average more than 100% of monthly GNI per capita.
1. The ITU ICT Price Basket is a composite measure based on three tariff sets fixed-telephone, mobile-cellular and fixed-broadband Internet services and computed as a percentage of average GNI per capita.

35.4%
2.4 1.5 Developing countries

Developed countries

16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0

Mobile-cellular sub-basket
Mobile-cellular sub-basket 2010

2008 2008 2010

14.7 22.0% 11.4

Percentage change (drop) between 2008 and 2010

19.1%
2.4 2.0

Developed countries

Developing countries

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0

Fixed-telephone sub-basket 2008 2008

Fixed-telephone sub-basket Fixed-telephone sub-basket 2010 2010

6.7%
8.4 7.8

Percentage change (drop) between 2008 and 2010

9.8%
1.3 1.1

Developed countries
Source: ITU Measuring the Information Society (2011)

Developing countries

The World in 2011 ICT Facts and Figures

For more information:

ICT Data and Statistics Division Telecommunication Development Bureau International Telecommunication Union Place des Nations 1211 Geneva 20 - Switzerland indicators@itu.int www.itu.int/ict

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