ITU: 43% of the world’s population now online

Some 43.4% of the world’s population, roughly 3.2 billion people, are now online according to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).

The ITU’s ‘Measuring the Information Society Report’ predicts that by the end of the year, 46% of households globally will have internet access at home, up from just 30% in 2010.

“In the developed world, 81.3% of households now have home internet access, compared to 34.1% in the developing world, and just 6.7% in the 48 UN-designated Least Developed Countries,” said the ITU.

However, it added that internet use has slowed down, posting 6.9% global growth in 2015 compared to 7.4% growth in 2014.

In terms of mobile coverage, the report says that more than 95% of the global population is now covered by a mobile-cellular signal, representing almost 7.1 billion people worldwide.

This means that there are still an estimated 350 million people worldwide who are not in reach of a mobile network – down from 450 million a year ago.

Some 89% of the world’s urban population is now covered by a 3G network, but only 29% of the world’s 3.4 billion people living in rural areas benefit from 3G coverage, added the ITU.