An estimated 6 billion people used the internet in 2025, about three-quarters of humanity, according to the ITU’s Facts and Figures 2025. DataReportal put the count at 6.12 billion by April 2026, equal to 73.8 percent of the world’s population (DataReportal, Digital 2026 Mid-Year Update). Yet 2.2 billion people remain offline, and 96 percent of them live in low- and middle-income countries (ITU, Facts and Figures 2025). Mobile carries most of the load: 4.7 billion people now use mobile internet on their own device (GSMA, The Mobile Economy 2025), while global traffic grew 19 percent in a single year (Cloudflare, Radar 2025 Year in Review). This analysis consolidates data from the ITU, DataReportal, GSMA, Ericsson, and 3 other primary sources to map who is online, who is not, and how the connected world actually behaves.
TL;DR
- 6 billion people used the internet in 2025, roughly 74 percent of the world’s population (ITU, Facts and Figures 2025).
- 6.12 billion users by April 2026, up 59 million year over year (DataReportal, Digital 2026 Mid-Year Update).
- 2.2 billion people remain offline; 96 percent live in low- and middle-income countries (ITU, Facts and Figures 2025).
- 94 percent of people in high-income countries are online versus 23 percent in low-income countries (ITU, Facts and Figures 2025).
- 4.7 billion people use mobile internet on their own device, 58 percent of the world (GSMA, The Mobile Economy 2025).
- 96.2 percent of internet users go online via mobile at least some of the time (DataReportal, Digital 2026 Mid-Year Update).
- The average connected adult spends 6 hours 38 minutes online per day (DataReportal, Digital 2026 Mid-Year Update).
- The average smartphone consumes 22 GB of mobile data per month worldwide (Ericsson, Mobility Report November 2025).
- Global internet traffic grew 19 percent in 2025, up from 17 percent in 2024 (Cloudflare, Radar 2025 Year in Review).
- English accounts for 49.6 percent of web content whose language is identifiable (W3Techs, July 2026).
1. The Global Online Population
Two authoritative counts frame the year, and they nearly agree. The ITU’s 2025 estimate of 6 billion internet users, about 74 percent of the world’s population, sits just below DataReportal’s 6.12 billion and 73.8 percent for April 2026 (ITU, Facts and Figures 2025; DataReportal, Digital 2026 Mid-Year Update). The divergence is one of timing and methodology, not disagreement. What matters more is the slowdown: the ITU added 240 million users in 2025, but DataReportal’s most recent 12-month window shows growth of just 1.0 percent, a sign that the easy gains are behind us and the remaining offline population is harder to reach.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Internet users, start of April 2026 | 6.12 billion | DataReportal, Digital 2026 Mid-Year Update |
| Internet users, 2025 | 6.0 billion | ITU, Facts and Figures 2025 |
| Global internet penetration, April 2026 | 73.8% | DataReportal, Digital 2026 Mid-Year Update |
| People offline worldwide | 2.2 billion | ITU, Facts and Figures 2025 |
| New internet users added in 2025 | 240 million | ITU, Facts and Figures 2025 |
| Year-over-year user growth to April 2026 | +1.0% (+59 million) | DataReportal, Digital 2026 Mid-Year Update |
| Mobile internet users, own device | 4.7 billion (58%) | GSMA, The Mobile Economy 2025 |
Outlier: the ITU logged year-over-year growth of 3.3 percent in 2025, higher than DataReportal’s figure because the two track different populations and periods.
2. The Connectivity Divide: Who Is Still Offline
Access maps almost perfectly onto income. In high-income countries 94 percent of people are online; in low-income countries only 23 percent are (ITU, Facts and Figures 2025). The offline population is not randomly distributed: it is disproportionately poor, rural, and female. Regionally, Europe, the CIS and the Americas cluster at 88 to 93 percent, Asia-Pacific reaches 77 percent, the Arab States 70 percent, and Africa 36 percent. The GSMA adds a critical nuance: most of the offline are not missing coverage but choosing not to, or unable to afford to, connect.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Internet use, high-income countries | 94% | ITU, Facts and Figures 2025 |
| Internet use, low-income countries | 23% | ITU, Facts and Figures 2025 |
| Men online | 77% | ITU, Facts and Figures 2025 |
| Women online | 71% | ITU, Facts and Figures 2025 |
| Urban population online | 85% | ITU, Facts and Figures 2025 |
| Rural population online | 58% | ITU, Facts and Figures 2025 |
| Usage gap: covered but not using mobile internet | 3.1 billion (38%) | GSMA, State of Mobile Internet Connectivity 2025 |
| Coverage gap: no mobile broadband available | ~300 million (4%) | GSMA, State of Mobile Internet Connectivity 2025 |
Context: the ITU counts about 280 million more men than women online in 2025, and youth aged 15 to 24 are online at 82 percent versus 72 percent for the rest of the population (ITU, Facts and Figures 2025).
3. Mobile-First: How the World Connects
For most of the planet, the internet is a phone. DataReportal counts 5.83 billion unique mobile users, and smartphones make up 89.1 percent of handsets in use (DataReportal, Digital 2026 Mid-Year Update). Mobile’s share of traffic depends on how you measure it: Cloudflare’s network sees 43 percent of requests from mobile devices, while panel-based measurement puts mobile above half of web traffic. Either way, mobile data consumption is climbing fast, and the economic footprint is enormous, with mobile technologies contributing 5.8 percent of global GDP. For a deeper breakdown of what those devices actually run, see our mobile app usage statistics.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Unique mobile users, April 2026 | 5.83 billion (70.4%) | DataReportal, Digital 2026 Mid-Year Update |
| Smartphone share of mobile handsets | 89.1% | DataReportal, Digital 2026 Mid-Year Update |
| Mobile share of internet request traffic | 43% | Cloudflare, Radar 2025 Year in Review |
| Avg mobile data per smartphone | 22 GB/month | Ericsson, Mobility Report November 2025 |
| Mobile data traffic growth, Q3 2024 to Q3 2025 | +20% | Ericsson, Mobility Report November 2025 |
| 5G subscriptions, end 2025 | ~2.9 billion (one-third of mobile) | Ericsson, Mobility Report November 2025 |
| Mobile technologies as share of global GDP | 5.8% ($6.5 trillion) | GSMA, The Mobile Economy 2025 |
Divergence note: DataReportal reports mobile phones at 51.6 percent of web traffic, higher than Cloudflare’s 43 percent, because the two use different measurement panels and traffic definitions.
4. What People Do Online
Time online has plateaued near seven hours a day, and the mix is media-heavy. The average connected adult spends 6 hours 38 minutes online daily, of which roughly 2 hours 21 minutes go to social media (DataReportal, Digital 2026 Mid-Year Update). The stated motivations are practical first, entertainment second: finding information leads, videos and shows follow close behind. The fastest-moving behavior is generative AI adoption, which DataReportal now counts at 2.42 billion users, up 141 percent year over year. Social platforms remain the anchor of daily habit; our social media statistics roundup goes deeper on platform-level trends.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Average daily time online | 6h 38m | DataReportal, Digital 2026 Mid-Year Update |
| Average daily time on social media | 2h 21m | DataReportal, Digital 2026 Mid-Year Update |
| Top reason to use the internet: finding information | 60.1% | DataReportal, Digital 2026 Mid-Year Update |
| Watching videos, TV shows and movies | 53.4% | DataReportal, Digital 2026 Mid-Year Update |
| Social media user identities | 5.79 billion (69.9%) | DataReportal, Digital 2026 Mid-Year Update |
Context: staying in touch with friends and family ranks second among stated reasons for internet use at 57.7 percent, and generative AI tools reached 2.42 billion users, or 29.2 percent of the global population, in the same survey (DataReportal, Digital 2026 Mid-Year Update).
5. Networks, 5G, and Affordability
Coverage is largely solved; affordability and adoption are not. Ninety-six percent of the world’s population now lives within reach of a mobile broadband network, yet 5G reaches only 55 percent (GSMA, State of Mobile Internet Connectivity 2025; ITU, Facts and Figures 2025). The infrastructure story is one of steep gradients: 5G already carries 48 percent of mobile traffic even though it covers barely half the planet, and price remains the hard barrier. In Sub-Saharan Africa, 1GB of data still costs about 5.8 percent of monthly income, nearly triple the UN affordability target. Satellite is starting to fill rural gaps, with Starlink request volume up 2.3x in 2025. See our companion 5G adoption statistics for the full picture.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Population covered by mobile broadband | 96% | GSMA, State of Mobile Internet Connectivity 2025 |
| 5G population coverage, 2025 | 55% | ITU, Facts and Figures 2025 |
| 5G share of mobile data traffic, end 2025 | 48% | Ericsson, Mobility Report November 2025 |
| Projected avg mobile data per smartphone, 2031 | 42 GB/month | Ericsson, Mobility Report November 2025 |
| 1GB mobile data cost, Sub-Saharan Africa | ~5.8% of monthly income | A4AI, Affordability Report |
| Global median 1GB cost | ~1.3% of monthly income | A4AI, Affordability Report |
| Fastest national fixed download speed (Spain) | 300+ Mbps | Cloudflare, Radar 2025 Year in Review |
| Starlink request-volume growth, 2025 | 2.3x | Cloudflare, Radar 2025 Year in Review |
Flag: the A4AI and ITU affordability figures draw on 2023-2024 pricing data, the most recent complete series available (A4AI, Affordability Report). For fixed and mobile speed detail, see our internet speed statistics.
6. The Shape of Global Traffic
The pipes are getting busier, more secure, and more automated. Global internet traffic grew 19 percent in 2025, and post-quantum encryption already protects 52 percent of human web traffic (Cloudflare, Radar 2025 Year in Review). Protocol modernization continues, with HTTP/3 handling 21 percent of requests and IPv6 at 29 percent of dual-stack traffic. Automated traffic is now a permanent feature of the web: AI bots alone account for 4.2 percent of HTML requests, a category that barely existed two years ago. Language remains lopsided too, with English still dominating identifiable web content. For the defensive side of automated traffic, see our bot traffic statistics.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Global internet traffic growth, 2025 | +19% | Cloudflare, Radar 2025 Year in Review |
| Countries where most traffic is mobile | 117 | Cloudflare, Radar 2025 Year in Review |
| IPv6 share of dual-stack requests | 29% | Cloudflare, Radar 2025 Year in Review |
| HTTP/3 share of requests | 21% | Cloudflare, Radar 2025 Year in Review |
| Post-quantum encryption share of human web traffic | 52% | Cloudflare, Radar 2025 Year in Review |
| AI bots’ share of HTML request traffic | 4.2% | Cloudflare, Radar 2025 Year in Review |
| English share of identifiable web content | 49.6% | W3Techs, Content Languages July 2026 |
| Spanish share of web content (2nd) | 6.1% | W3Techs, Content Languages July 2026 |
Context: Googlebot alone accounted for 28 percent of verified bot traffic in 2025, and Cloudflare observed 174 major internet outages, 47 percent of them caused by government-directed shutdowns (Cloudflare, Radar 2025 Year in Review).
Summary: Global Internet Usage by the Numbers
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Internet users, April 2026 | 6.12 billion | DataReportal, Digital 2026 Mid-Year Update |
| Internet users, 2025 | 6.0 billion | ITU, Facts and Figures 2025 |
| Global internet penetration | 73.8-74% | DataReportal / ITU |
| People offline worldwide | 2.2 billion | ITU, Facts and Figures 2025 |
| High-income vs low-income online | 94% vs 23% | ITU, Facts and Figures 2025 |
| Africa internet penetration | 36% | ITU, Facts and Figures 2025 |
| Men vs women online | 77% vs 71% | ITU, Facts and Figures 2025 |
| Urban vs rural online | 85% vs 58% | ITU, Facts and Figures 2025 |
| Mobile internet users, own device | 4.7 billion (58%) | GSMA, The Mobile Economy 2025 |
| Usage gap (covered, not using) | 3.1 billion (38%) | GSMA, State of Mobile Internet Connectivity 2025 |
| Unique mobile users | 5.83 billion | DataReportal, Digital 2026 Mid-Year Update |
| Average daily time online | 6h 38m | DataReportal, Digital 2026 Mid-Year Update |
| Generative AI users | 2.42 billion (29.2%) | DataReportal, Digital 2026 Mid-Year Update |
| Avg mobile data per smartphone | 22 GB/month | Ericsson, Mobility Report November 2025 |
| 5G share of mobile data traffic | 48% | Ericsson, Mobility Report November 2025 |
| 5G population coverage | 55% | ITU, Facts and Figures 2025 |
| Global internet traffic growth, 2025 | +19% | Cloudflare, Radar 2025 Year in Review |
| Post-quantum encryption share | 52% | Cloudflare, Radar 2025 Year in Review |
| English share of web content | 49.6% | W3Techs, July 2026 |
| 1GB cost, Sub-Saharan Africa | ~5.8% of income | A4AI, Affordability Report |
Methodology and Sources
Data was gathered by aggregating figures from primary reports, official statistical portals, and network measurement dashboards published in 2025 and the first half of 2026, cross-referencing user and penetration totals across two or more sources where they overlap.
Sources cited:
- ITU, Measuring Digital Development: Facts and Figures 2025 (International Telecommunication Union, 2025)
- DataReportal, Digital 2026 Mid-Year Global Update Report (DataReportal / We Are Social / Meltwater, 2026)
- GSMA, The Mobile Economy 2025 and State of Mobile Internet Connectivity 2025 (GSMA, 2025)
- Ericsson, Mobility Report November 2025 (Ericsson, 2025)
- Cloudflare, Radar 2025 Year in Review (Cloudflare, 2025)
- W3Techs, Usage Statistics of Content Languages for Websites (Q-Success / W3Techs, July 2026)
- A4AI, Mobile Broadband Pricing / Affordability Report (Alliance for Affordable Internet, 2024)
Data watch: several of these are recurring editions with new releases expected soon. The ITU publishes Facts and Figures each November; DataReportal issues a Global Overview in January and a mid-year update in July; the GSMA refreshes The Mobile Economy around MWC each February or March; Ericsson updates its Mobility Report in June and November; Cloudflare releases its Radar Year in Review each December; and W3Techs updates content-language shares monthly. Affordability figures from A4AI trail by roughly a year and should be treated as the most recent complete series rather than live pricing.
Last updated: July 17, 2026.
We review and update this page quarterly as new data is published.