Connect with us

Maps

Where Will the Next Billion Internet Users Come From?

Published

on

Next billion internet users

Can I share this graphic?
Yes. Visualizations are free to share and post in their original form across the web—even for publishers. Please link back to this page and attribute Visual Capitalist.
When do I need a license?
Licenses are required for some commercial uses, translations, or layout modifications. You can even whitelabel our visualizations. Explore your options.
Interested in this piece?
Click here to license this visualization.

Where Will the Next Billion Internet Users Come From?

Internet adoption has steadily increased over the years—it’s more than doubled since 2010.

Despite its widespread use, a significant portion of the global population still isn’t connected to the internet, and in certain areas of the world, the number of disconnected people skews towards higher percentages.

Using information from DataReportal, this visual highlights which regions have the greatest number of people disconnected from the web. We’ll also dive into why some regions have low numbers, and take a look at which countries have seen the most growth in the last year.

Top 10 Most Disconnected, by Number of People

The majority of countries with lower rates of internet access are in Asia and Africa. Here’s a look at the top 10 countries with the highest numbers of people not connected to the web:

RankCountry / TerritoryUnconnected People% of Population
1India685,591,07150%
2China582,063,73341%
3Pakistan142,347,73565%
4Nigeria118,059,92558%
5Bangladesh97,427,35259%
6Indonesia96,709,22636%
7Ethiopia92,385,72881%
8Democratic Republic of Congo71,823,31981%
9Brazil61,423,29529%
10Egypt46,626,17046%

*Note: Rankings only include countries/territories with populations over 50,000.

Interestingly, India has the highest number of disconnected people despite having the second largest online market in the world. That being said, 50% of the country’s population still doesn’t have internet access—for reference, only 14% of the U.S. population remains disconnected to the web. Clearly, India has some untapped potential.

China takes second place, with over 582 million people not connected to the internet. This is partly because of the country’s significant rural population—in 2019, 39% of the country’s population was living in rural areas.

The gap in internet access between rural and urban China is significant. This was made apparent during China’s recent switch to online learning in response to the pandemic. While one-third of elementary school children living in rural areas weren’t able to access their online classes, only 5.7% of city dwellers weren’t able to log on.

It’s important to note that the rural-urban divide is an issue in many countries, not just China. Even places like the U.S. struggle to provide internet access to remote or rugged rural areas.

Top 10 Most Disconnected, by Share of Population

While India, China, and Pakistan have the highest number of people without internet access, there are countries arguably more disconnected.

Here’s a look at the top 10 most disconnected countries, by share of population:

RankCountry / Territory% of PopulationUnconnected People
1North Korea100%25,722,103
2South Sudan92%10,240,199
3Eritrea92%3,228,429
4Burundi90%10,556,111
5Somalia90%14,042,139
6Niger88%20,977,412
7Papua New Guinea88%7,761,628
8Liberia88%4,372,916
9Guinea-Bissau87%1,694,458
10Central African Republic86%4,132,006

There are various reasons why these regions have a high percentage of people not online—some are political, which is the case of North Korea, where only a select few people can access the wider web. Regular citizens are restricted from using the global internet but have access to a domestic intranet called Kwangmyong.

Other reasons are financial, which is the case in South Sudan. The country has struggled with civil conflict and economic hardship for years, which has caused widespread poverty throughout the nation. It’s also stifled infrastructural development—only 2% of the country has access to electricity as of 2020, which explains why so few people have access to the web.

In the case of Papua New Guinea, a massive rural population is likely the reason behind its low percentage of internet users—80% of the population lives in rural areas, with little to no connections to modern life.

Fastest Growing Regions

While internet advancements like 5G are happening in certain regions, and showing no signs of slowing down, there’s still a long way to go before we reach global connectivity.

Despite the long road ahead, the gap is closing, and previously untapped markets are seeing significant growth. Here’s a look at the top five fast-growing regions:

RankRegionChange in internet use (From 2019 to 2020)
1Central Africa+40%
2Southern Asia+20%
3Northern Africa+14%
4Western Asia+11%
5Caribbean+9%

Africa has seen significant growth, mainly because of a massive spike of internet users in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)—between 2019 and 2020, the country’s number of internet users increased by 9 million (+122%). This growth has been facilitated by non-profit organizations and companies like Facebook, which have invested heavily in the development of Africa’s internet connectivity.

India has also seen significant growth—between 2019 and 2020, the number of internet users in the country grew by 128 million (+23%).

If these countries continue to grow at similar rates, who knows what the breakdown of internet users will look like in the next few years?

Click for Comments

Misc

Mapped: Asia’s Population Patterns by Density

We visualize Asia’s population patterns to see where 4.6 billion people, or two-thirds of the world’s population, actually live.

Published

on

A cropped map of Asia's population patterns, visualizing where people actually live.

A Map of Asia’s Population Patterns by Density

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

Nearly 60% of the world’s 8 billion population lives in Asia: a vast continent sprawling over 44 million km², home to sprawling megacities, high-altitude deserts, the world’s biggest plateau, and impenetrable rainforests.

We visualize Asia’s population patterns using data from WorldPop—a research group based out of the University of Southampton that tracks population growth and movement across the globe.

A spike on the map denotes higher population density.

Other figures in this article are sourced from World Population Review (population numbers) and the World Bank (area).

Ranked: Asia’s Countries By Population

Immediately the map visualizes at impressive scale a rather well-known fact: that India and China together account for 35% of the world’s population just by themselves.

Pakistan (ranked 4th in population) and Bangladesh (ranked 5th) together account for another 400 million people.

The role of the Himalayas in this distribution is understated: the mountain range is a source of ten major rivers, flowing to India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and China, providing fresh water to 1.3 billion people in its watershed.

RankCountryPopulationArea
1🇮🇳 India1,437,982,6613,287,260 km²
2🇨🇳 China1,425,317,7209,562,910 km²
3🇮🇩 Indonesia279,119,6261,916,907 km²
4🇵🇰 Pakistan243,772,596796,100 km²
5🇧🇩 Bangladesh174,173,808147,570 km²
6🇷🇺 Russia144,101,44917,098,250 km²
7🇯🇵 Japan122,833,540377,974 km²
8🇵🇭 Philippines119,106,224300,000 km²
9🇻🇳 Vietnam99,308,524331,340 km²
10🇮🇷 Iran89,626,6611,745,150 km²
11🇹🇷 Turkey86,127,389785,350 km²
12🇹🇭 Thailand71,863,281513,120 km²
13🇲🇲 Myanmar54,849,472676,590 km²
14🇰🇷 South Korea51,756,284100,430 km²
15🇮🇶 Iraq46,225,266435,050 km²
16🇦🇫 Afghanistan43,026,322652,860 km²
17🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia37,473,9292,149,690 km²
18🇺🇿 Uzbekistan35,522,965448,924 km²
19🇾🇪 Yemen34,982,136555,000 km²
20🇲🇾 Malaysia34,562,556330,411 km²
21🇳🇵 Nepal31,136,781147,180 km²
22🇰🇵 North Korea26,220,850120,540 km²
23🇸🇾 Syria24,010,759185,180 km²
24🇹🇼 Taiwan23,942,52236,197 km²
25🇱🇰 Sri Lanka21,933,15565,610 km²
26🇰🇿 Kazakhstan19,764,1582,724,900 km²
27🇰🇭 Cambodia17,071,236181,040 km²
28🇯🇴 Jordan11,368,89889,318 km²
29🇦🇿 Azerbaijan10,448,63686,600 km²
30🇹🇯 Tajikistan10,277,238141,379 km²
31🇦🇪 UAE9,569,30098,648 km²
32🇮🇱 Israel9,272,22822,070 km²
33🇱🇦 Laos7,736,681236,800 km²
34🇰🇬 Kyrgyzstan6,807,948199,950 km²
35🇹🇲 Turkmenistan6,573,631488,100 km²
36🇸🇬 Singapore6,119,203728 km²
37🇵🇸 Palestine5,494,9636,025 km²
38🇱🇧 Lebanon5,257,50110,450 km²
39🇴🇲 Oman4,692,824309,500 km²
40🇰🇼 Kuwait4,337,70317,820 km²
41🇬🇪 Georgia3,720,47769,700 km²
42🇲🇳 Mongolia3,480,0401,564,116 km²
43🇦🇲 Armenia2,777,97929,743 km²
44🇶🇦 Qatar2,730,86411,490 km²
45🇧🇭 Bahrain1,494,745790 km²
46🇹🇱 Timor-Leste1,374,02514,870 km²
47🇨🇾 Cyprus1,260,1389,250 km²
48🇧🇹 Bhutan790,91838,390 km²
49🇲🇻 Maldives518,765300 km²
50🇧🇳 Brunei454,8695,770 km²

Note: Russia and Georgia are typically regarded as European countries for cultural reasons, despite their geographic locations. They have been included in the dataset for context only.

Other countries that are covered by red: Indonesia (ranked 4th in population), Japan (ranked 7th), and the Philippines (8th), are all some of Asia’s most populous countries.

They also have some of the world’s densest cities:

  • Manila: 42,857 people/km²
  • Mumbai: 28,195 people/km²
  • Karachi: 24,000 people/km²
  • Jakarta: 14,464 people/km²

Tokyo and Beijing—despite being some of the world’s largest cities by population—record lower densities in comparison, helped by their much larger administrative areas.

But when sorted by average population density across the entire country, the ranks look a little bit different.

Ranked: Asia’s Countries By Population Density

The city state of Singapore is the densest country in Asia, with more than 8,000 people/km². Far behind it, the similarly sized in area Bahrain has one-sixth the population and ranks second (1,892/km²) in Asia’s densest countries.

RankCountryPopulation Density
1🇸🇬 Singapore8,405 people/km2
2🇧🇭 Bahrain1,892 people/km2
3🇲🇻 Maldives1,729 people/km2
4🇧🇩 Bangladesh1,180 people/km2
5🇵🇸 Palestine912 people/km2
6🇹🇼 Taiwan661 people/km2
7🇰🇷 South Korea515 people/km2
8🇱🇧 Lebanon503 people/km2
9🇮🇳 India437 people/km2
10🇮🇱 Israel420 people/km2
11🇵🇭 Philippines397 people/km2
12🇱🇰 Sri Lanka334 people/km2
13🇯🇵 Japan325 people/km2
14🇵🇰 Pakistan306 people/km2
15🇻🇳 Vietnam300 people/km2
16🇰🇼 Kuwait243 people/km2
17🇶🇦 Qatar238 people/km2
18🇰🇵 North Korea218 people/km2
19🇳🇵 Nepal212 people/km2
20🇨🇳 China149 people/km2
21🇮🇩 Indonesia146 people/km2
22🇹🇭 Thailand140 people/km2
23🇨🇾 Cyprus136 people/km2
24🇸🇾 Syria130 people/km2
25🇯🇴 Jordan127 people/km2
26🇦🇿 Azerbaijan120 people/km2
27🇹🇷 Turkey110 people/km2
28🇮🇶 Iraq106 people/km2
29🇲🇾 Malaysia105 people/km2
30🇦🇪 UAE97 people/km2
31🇦🇲 Armenia94 people/km2
32🇰🇭 Cambodia94 people/km2
33🇹🇱 Timor-Leste92 people/km2
34🇲🇲 Myanmar81 people/km2
35🇧🇳 Brunei79 people/km2
36🇺🇿 Uzbekistan79 people/km2
37🇹🇯 Tajikistan73 people/km2
38🇦🇫 Afghanistan66 people/km2
39🇾🇪 Yemen63 people/km2
40🇬🇪 Georgia54 people/km2
41🇮🇷 Iran51 people/km2
42🇰🇬 Kyrgyzstan34 people/km2
43🇱🇦 Laos33 people/km2
44🇧🇹 Bhutan21 people/km2
45🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia17 people/km2
46🇴🇲 Oman15 people/km2
47🇹🇲 Turkmenistan13 people/km2
48🇷🇺 Russia8 people/km2
49🇰🇿 Kazakhstan7 people/km2
50🇲🇳 Mongolia2 people/km2

Note: Russia and Georgia are typically regarded as European countries for cultural reasons, despite their geographic locations. They have been included in the dataset for context only.

Bangladesh, with 1,180 people/km², has the rare distinction of being a top five Asian country by both population and average population density.

Meanwhile, India is 9th in population density (437 people/km²), its large landmass bringing down the average considerably.

Similarly, China nearly breaks into the top 20 with a population density of 149 people/km². Despite its vast population, the country’s immense size presents a challenge, particularly in its western regions, which are largely inhospitable to substantial human settlement due to the presence of mountains, the Tibetan plateau, and two deserts.

At the bottom of the rankings, Mongolia (2 people/km²) and Kazakhstan (7 people/km²) are some of the least dense countries in the world.

Continue Reading

Subscribe

Popular