About 6 billion people—74% of the world’s population—used the internet in 2025, according to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The figure is a 2025 estimate, not a measurement of internet use throughout 2026. It also counts people, not websites or the volume of data moving across the internet.
Global internet users: the latest comparable estimates
The ITU is the strongest primary source here for a global adoption figure. Its 2025 estimate puts internet use at approximately 6 billion people, or 74% of the world’s population, leaving 2.2 billion people offline. The ITU says the share was 60% in 2020 and estimates that 1.3 billion people came online between 2020 and 2025. These are population estimates, not a live count of connected devices or accounts. ITU global ICT statistics offers the agency’s statistics and time series.
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A separate estimate from Kepios, published in DataReportal’s Digital 2026 report, counted 6.04 billion internet users—73.2% of the population—at the start of October 2025. Kepios reported year-on-year growth of 294 million, or 5.1%. This is a different estimate and snapshot from the ITU’s 2025 figure; the two should not be treated as sequential readings from a single series. Kepios also cautions that revisions, particularly in India and China, account for much of the apparent jump from its earlier estimate. DataReportal: Digital 2026
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- ITU, 2025: approximately 6 billion users, 74% of the world population; 2.2 billion people offline.
- Kepios/DataReportal, start of October 2025: 6.04 billion users, 73.2% of the population; 294 million growth over 12 months, or 5.1%.
The estimates differ because their publishers use distinct inputs and snapshot conventions. A percentage also depends on its population denominator and definition of internet use. For a meaningful comparison, keep the publisher, reference date, method and revision status attached to each figure rather than combining them into one growth calculation. The ITU’s 2025 release revised its 2024 estimate, so changes between published editions do not necessarily represent people newly coming online.
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Internet use by region
ITU’s 2025 regional estimates show a wide spread in the share of people using the internet. The labels below are ITU regions, not informal geographic groupings. ITU Facts and Figures 2025
| ITU region | Population using the internet in 2025 |
|---|---|
| Africa | 36% |
| Americas | 88% |
| Arab States | 70% |
| Asia-Pacific | 77% |
| CIS | 93% |
| Europe | 92% |
These are regional shares of people using the internet, not counts of users, measures of connection quality, or estimates of traffic. A high adoption rate does not by itself show whether access is affordable, reliable or safe.
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Internet access gaps by residence, gender and age
The ITU’s 2025 figures also show differences within the global population. For each comparison, the percentage is the share of the named group using the internet—not the group’s share of all users. The figures were presented in an ITU presentation dated 14 January 2026. ITU Facts and Figures 2025
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|---|---|
| Urban residents worldwide | 85% |
| Rural residents worldwide | 58% |
| Men worldwide | 77% |
| Women worldwide | 71% |
| Youth aged 15–24 worldwide | 82% |
| Rest of the population worldwide | 72% |
The urban–rural difference is 27 percentage points; the difference between men and women is 6 points; and the difference between youth aged 15–24 and the rest of the population is 10 points. These are descriptive gaps in reported use, not explanations of why they exist. Internet adoption alone does not capture the quality, cost, devices, skills or security involved in getting online.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What website and internet-traffic statistics can—and cannot—tell you
There is no validated worldwide website total or all-internet traffic total established by the figures cited here. Those are separate questions from how many people use the internet, and any total would need a clear definition, measurement window, unit and inclusion rules. For example, a website count must clarify what qualifies as a site; a traffic total must specify what networks, data and period it covers. Without those definitions, figures from different sources are not reliably comparable.
A technology share is not a website census
W3Techs reported Cloudflare CDN usage at 25% of websites on 5 January 2026. This is a share for a particular web technology in W3Techs’ survey, not a count of all websites and not the share of internet traffic carried by Cloudflare. W3Techs web technology surveys
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Infrastructure figures are not a traffic total
The ITU’s Global Connectivity Report 2025 says submarine cables carry over 99% of international data flows and data centres consume about 1.5% of global electricity. These figures describe infrastructure and energy context; neither measures the total volume of internet traffic. The report frames meaningful connectivity across six dimensions: “Quality, Availability, Affordability, Devices, Skills, and Security.” ITU Global Connectivity Report 2025
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