According to a report published on Wednesday by the International Union of Power Supervision (ITU), by 2024, the Internet will be available for 5.5 billion people, representing a growth of 227 million people compared to revised assessments for 2023.
Currently, 68% of the world’s population has access to the Internet, with this figure continuing to rise. However, approximately one-third of the world’s population is still not connected to the network.
The Secretary-General of ITU, Dorin Bogdan-Martin, highlighted the disparity in digital availability between countries with high and low income, emphasizing that vulnerable populations lack access to critical information, education, and job opportunities. Progress, she noted, should be geared towards ensuring that all communities progress together.
The study reveals a strong correlation between Internet access and development levels. In high-income countries, 93% of the population uses the Internet in 2024, compared to only 27% in low-income countries. The lowest access rates are observed in the least developed countries, at 35%, and in landlocked developing nations, at 39%.
By 2024, an estimated 2.6 billion people, or 32% of the global population, will still lack Internet access. This marks an improvement from the previously projected 35% (2.8 billion people) for 2023.
Gender equality in Internet usage is gradually improving, with 70% of men and 65% of women worldwide using the Internet in 2024. Positive trends are seen across regions, although the least developed countries lag behind.
A significant urban-rural divide persists, with 83% of city residents projected to use the Internet in 2024, compared to less than half of the rural population at 48%. Of the 2.6 billion people without Internet access, 1.8 billion reside in rural areas.
Youth demonstrate higher Internet usage rates, with 79% of people aged 15-24 utilizing the network – a 13-percentage point difference compared to the rest of the population. This gap is slowly narrowing across all regions over the past four years.
While there is a positive trend of decreasing Internet costs, affordability remains a significant challenge. In countries with low-income levels, a fixed broadband connection subscription can amount to about a third of the average monthly income.