IT Power
On Sept. 22 (local time), the Daily Mail reported on an Internet user map that was made public. The map that contains information about the number of Internet users and Internet penetration rates per country was made by researchers at the Oxford Internet Institute using 2011 data on web users from the World Bank. The size of each country on the map is based on the number of Internet users, and countries without Internet users are not shown on the map. The shading of each country reflects its Internet penetration rates, darker shades indicating higher levels of Internet usage in the nation.
The countries with Internet access rates of more than 80 percent are Northern European countries like Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Norway, along with the U.K., Germany, Canada, New Zealand, and Qatar. Korea was also among the top 12 countries with a more than 80 percent Internet penetration rate. Korea and Qatar were the only countries in Asia that ranked among the top 12.
Meanwhile, China has the world’s largest Internet population at over half a billion, followed by the U.S., India, and Japan. In particular, the Internet population in Asia accounts for 42 percent of the total. In fact, China, India, and Japan host more web users than Europe and North America combined.
There are almost as many Internet users in Latin America as the U.S., but most Latin American countries have just over a 40 percent Internet penetration rate. Over the past three years, the number of Internet users has doubled in most of North African countries. However, the number for South African countries is still hovering below 10 percent.