SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 1 — The world now has more than 4.3 billion internet users, almost 80 per cent of whom are active on social media, according to the new Digital 2019 report from the We Are Social creative agency and the Hootsuite social media management platform.
That means that 57 per cent of people in the world are now connected to the internet.
In the space of a year, the world has gained more than 367 million new internet users, an increase of 9.1 per cent.
North America and Northern Europe have the highest internet penetration rates, with 95 per cent of the population connected to the web, just ahead of Western Europe (94 per cent).
Internet penetration reaches 88 per cent in Southern Europe, 80 per cent in Eastern Europe and 73 per cent in Southern America.
At the other end of the scale, internet users only account for 12 per cent of the population in Middle Africa and 32 per cent in Eastern Africa.
Note the particularly high penetration rates in Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Iceland, where 99 per cent of the population is connected to the internet, compared to 0.08 per cent in North Korea.
Web users surf for an average 6 hours, 42 minutes per day, with wide regional variations. Users in the Philippines are the heaviest users (10 hours, 2 minutes) while the Americans come in at 6 hours, 31 minutes, Singaporeans at 7 hours, 2 minutes and Japanese at 3 hours, 45 minutes.
Unsurprisingly, social media is particularly popular with internet users, no matter where they live.
There are some 3.484 billion active social media users worldwide, or 45 per cent of the world’s population.
Regionally, it is in North America and Eastern Asia where social media penetration is highest (70 per cent), ahead of Northern Europe (67 per cent) and Southern America (66 per cent).
Social media penetration is lowest in Middle Africa (7 per cent). Social media users spend an average 2 hours, 16 minutes per day using the services, and users in the Philippines once again lead the way (4 hours, 12 minutes), with Americans clocking 2 hours, 4 minutes, Singaporeans 2 hours, 8 minutes and the Japanese 36 minutes.
“Global Digital 2019” is based on data from partner publications including GlobalWebIndex, GSMA Intelligence, Statista, Locowise and SimilarWeb. — AFP-Relaxnews
