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Internet adoption since 1990

From a laboratory network to the default way most people read, pay and talk: three decades of one of the fastest diffusions of a technology ever measured.

4 charts · 3 min read · Data refreshed 11 Sep 2026

In 2000, 6.7 % of the world population used the Internet. In 2023 the population-weighted share was 71.3 %.

50 of 181 countries with data had at least nine users in ten in 2023.

01 · World map

Internet users, % of population

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2023
181 countries
Internet users, 2023World map of Internet users (2023) for 181 countries, from 0.0 % to 100.0 %.Fiji: 74.1 %Tanzania: 28.4 %W. Sahara: —Canada: 94.1 %United States: 93.5 %Kazakhstan: 92.9 %Uzbekistan: 89.0 %Papua New Guinea: 18.6 %Indonesia: 69.2 %Argentina: 89.2 %Chile: 94.5 %DR Congo: 19.0 %Somalia: 26.1 %Kenya: 32.1 %Sudan: —Chad: 12.0 %Haiti: 48.0 %Dominican Republic: 86.1 %Russia: 92.2 %Bahamas: 92.4 %Falkland Is.: —Norway: 99.0 %Greenland: —Fr. S. Antarctic Lands: —Timor-Leste: —South Africa: 78.3 %Lesotho: 49.0 %Mexico: 81.2 %Uruguay: 90.9 %Brazil: 84.2 %Bolivia: 77.3 %Peru: 79.5 %Colombia: 77.3 %Panama: 68.5 %Costa Rica: 85.4 %Nicaragua: 60.3 %Honduras: 58.1 %El Salvador: 62.6 %Guatemala: 56.7 %Belize: 70.2 %Venezuela: 76.3 %Guyana: 79.4 %Suriname: 87.4 %France: 86.8 %Ecuador: 72.7 %Puerto Rico: —Jamaica: 89.5 %Cuba: 69.6 %Zimbabwe: 38.7 %Botswana: —Namibia: 63.7 %Senegal: 59.2 %Mali: 36.0 %Mauritania: 45.0 %Benin: 32.4 %Niger: 13.0 %Nigeria: 40.1 %Cameroon: 42.2 %Togo: 37.6 %Ghana: 70.7 %Côte d'Ivoire: 40.7 %Guinea: 32.3 %Guinea-Bissau: 28.7 %Liberia: 31.2 %Sierra Leone: 23.7 %Burkina Faso: 25.4 %Central African Republic: 13.8 %Republic of the Congo: 43.2 %Gabon: 68.2 %Equatorial Guinea: 63.5 %Zambia: 16.5 %Malawi: 18.0 %Mozambique: 19.9 %Eswatini: 61.3 %Angola: 37.9 %Burundi: 7.2 %Israel: 87.0 %Lebanon: 81.7 %Madagascar: 18.2 %Palestine: 86.6 %Gambia: 48.7 %Tunisia: —Algeria: 76.2 %Jordan: 92.5 %United Arab Emirates: 100.0 %Qatar: 98.2 %Kuwait: 99.7 %Iraq: 81.8 %Oman: 95.3 %Vanuatu: —Cambodia: 68.9 %Thailand: 89.5 %Laos: 64.4 %Myanmar: —Vietnam: 78.1 %North Korea: —South Korea: 97.4 %Mongolia: 83.7 %India: 60.3 %Bangladesh: 44.5 %Bhutan: 90.0 %Nepal: 45.8 %Pakistan: —Afghanistan: 15.9 %Tajikistan: 54.4 %Kyrgyzstan: 91.0 %Turkmenistan: —Iran: 83.7 %Syria: —Armenia: 80.0 %Sweden: 95.7 %Belarus: 91.5 %Ukraine: 81.6 %Poland: 86.4 %Austria: 95.3 %Hungary: 91.5 %Moldova: 76.5 %Romania: 89.2 %Lithuania: 88.5 %Latvia: 92.2 %Estonia: 93.2 %Germany: 92.5 %Bulgaria: 80.4 %Greece: 85.0 %Türkiye: 86.0 %Albania: 83.1 %Croatia: 83.2 %Switzerland: 97.3 %Luxembourg: 99.3 %Belgium: 94.6 %Netherlands: 97.0 %Portugal: 85.8 %Spain: 95.4 %Ireland: 96.9 %New Caledonia: —Solomon Islands: 28.7 %New Zealand: 93.3 %Australia: 96.1 %Sri Lanka: 51.2 %China: 90.6 %Taiwan: —Italy: 87.0 %Denmark: 98.8 %United Kingdom: 95.4 %Iceland: 97.9 %Azerbaijan: 89.0 %Georgia: 81.9 %Philippines: 77.9 %Malaysia: 97.7 %Brunei: 99.0 %Slovenia: 90.4 %Finland: 93.5 %Slovakia: 87.2 %Czechia: 86.0 %Eritrea: —Japan: 85.0 %Paraguay: 78.1 %Yemen: —Saudi Arabia: 100.0 %N. Cyprus: —Cyprus: 91.2 %Morocco: 91.0 %Egypt: 74.0 %Libya: 82.1 %Ethiopia: 20.3 %Djibouti: 64.8 %Somaliland: —Uganda: 9.3 %Rwanda: 28.8 %Bosnia and Herzegovina: 83.4 %North Macedonia: 88.5 %Serbia: 85.4 %Montenegro: 88.6 %Kosovo: —Trinidad and Tobago: 82.0 %South Sudan: —
Internet users, 2023
  • 0.0 % – 0.7 %
  • 0.7 % – 7.5 %
  • 7.5 % – 26.3 %
  • 26.3 % – 58.0 %
  • 58.0 % – 82.0 %
  • 82.0 % – 100.0 %
  • No data
Tap a country for its value

Drag the year slider or press play. Hatched = no data.

Source: World Bank — WDI · IT.NET.USER.ZS · retrieved 11 Sep 2026

02 · Trend

Internet users by income group

Population-weighted mean across 10–208 countries per year, computed by CountryAtlas from country values.

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  • World
  • High income
  • Lower middle income
  • Low income
Internet users4 series from 1990 to 2025: World, High income, Lower middle income, Low income.199019952000200520102015202020250%20%40%60%80%100%

4 series from 1990 to 2025: World, High income, Lower middle income, Low income.

Source: World Bank — WDI · IT.NET.USER.ZS · retrieved 11 Sep 2026

03 · Selected countries

Six adoption curves

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  • South Korea
  • United States
  • Brazil
  • China
  • India
  • Nigeria
Internet users6 series from 1990 to 2025: South Korea, United States, Brazil, China, India, Nigeria.199019952000200520102015202020250%20%40%60%80%100%

6 series from 1990 to 2025: South Korea, United States, Brazil, China, India, Nigeria.

Source: World Bank — WDI · IT.NET.USER.ZS · retrieved 11 Sep 2026

04 · Ranking, 2023

Most connected countries

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Sources

Every figure on this page is computed from the CountryAtlas snapshot 20260911T072322Z (built 11 Sep 2026). Values carry the licence of their source; the compilation is CC BY 4.0.

World Bank

Indicators used

How this story is built

A story is a declarative template: a list of blocks (world map by year, aggregate trend, country lines, a ranking) bound to indicators. Sentences are templates filled with numbers computed server-side from exactly the payloads charted below; when a value is missing the sentence is omitted rather than guessed.

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