More than half the world is online

MORE than half the world’s population is now online, research by the United Nations has revealed.

Some 3.9billion people are using the internet, with 51.2% of the globe set to be connected by the end of the year – a milestone which was originally expected to be reached by the end of 2019.

Houlin Zhao, head of the UN’s International Telecommunication Union, said that the milestone was ‘an important step towards a more inclusive global information society’.

But he warned that ‘far too many people’ are still excluded. Four out of every five people in the world’s richest countries are connected to the internet, compared with just 51.3% back in 2005. In developing nations, the increase has been even more dramatic, with 45.3% of people online – a figure which is up from just 7.7% 13 years ago.

In Africa, the figure has shot up from 2.1% in 2005 to 24.4% today. There are now more mobile phone contracts than people on the planet.