March 07 2007

11% of worldwide population online

The number of people, aged 15 and over, with access to the internet increased by 10% worldwide over the past year to 747 million (about 11% of the world's population), according to comScore Networks. Internet audiences in India, the Russian Federation and China increased the most, growing 33, 21 and 20 per cent, respectively.

China now represents the second-largest internet population in the world, after the US. The UK has the fifth largest online population which currently stands at 30 million, representing an increase of 1% since January 2006. (The total UK population aged 15 and above is 48.5 million.)

As a measure of engagement, comScore also analysed the top 10 countries ranked by average hours online per visitor for January 2007. Canada led the list, with the average user spending 39.6 hours online (and 41.3 hours per month among broadband users). Rounding out the top 5 were Israel, South Korea, the US and the UK - all countries with high broadband penetration. In fact, in each of the top 10 countries, the time spent online by users with a broadband connection was substantially greater than the time spent by users with a narrowband connection.

People in the UK with a broadband connection typically spend 35.6 hours online each month, compared to just 7.5 hours for people with dial-up connection. "We have all believed that 'always-on' broadband connections stimulate usage - this study empirically confirms that conclusion," commented Bob Ivins, Managing Director, comScore Europe.

Emma Herrod