Countries with the Highest Internet Penetration (2025 Ranked)
Photo: Brett Sayles / Pexels
In 2025, about 6 billion people used the internet, roughly three-quarters of humanity, according to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the United Nations agency that collects the world's telecom statistics. The countries at the top of the ranking, the Gulf states and the Nordic nations, report that essentially everyone is online. At the bottom, fewer than one person in five is. This article ranks countries by internet penetration, explains what the number actually measures, and looks at why the gap persists.
Key takeaways
- Globally, ITU estimates about 6 billion people were online in 2025, and 2.2 billion were not. The World Bank's copy of the ITU series puts world internet use at 73.6%.
- The top of the table is crowded: the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait report 100%, with Denmark (99.8%), Luxembourg (99.1%), and Norway (99.0%) close behind.
- Income is the sharpest divide. ITU reports 94% internet use in high-income countries versus 23% in low-income countries, and 96% of the offline population lives in low- and middle-income countries.
- Rural and gender gaps persist. Worldwide, 85% of urban residents use the internet against 58% of rural residents, and 77% of men against 71% of women.
- Near 100%, rankings are fuzzy. A difference of one or two points between countries is inside the measurement error of the underlying surveys.
Which countries have the highest internet penetration?
The table below ranks the countries checked for this article by the most recent value in the World Bank's "Individuals using the Internet (% of population)" series, which is sourced from the ITU. It covers well over 100 data points, but it is not an exhaustive census of all 190-plus economies, so a country missing from it is not necessarily below the ones shown. Years are given because the latest available observation differs by country.
| Rank | Country | Internet use (% of population) | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1= | United Arab Emirates | 100 | 2024 |
| 1= | Bahrain | 100 | 2024 |
| 1= | Saudi Arabia | 100 | 2024 |
| 1= | Kuwait | 100 | 2025 |
| 5 | Denmark | 99.8 | 2024 |
| 6 | Luxembourg | 99.1 | 2025 |
| 7 | Norway | 99.0 | 2024 |
| 8 | Iceland | 98.2 | 2024 |
| 9 | Qatar | 98.1 | 2024 |
| 10 | Malaysia | 98.0 | 2024 |
| 11 | South Korea | 97.9 | 2024 |
| 12 | Switzerland | 97.3 | 2025 |
| 13 | Ireland | 97.2 | 2024 |
| 14 | Netherlands | 97.0 | 2024 |
| 15 | Australia | 96.1 | 2024 |
| 16 | Sweden | 95.8 | 2025 |
| 17 | Belgium | 95.8 | 2024 |
| 18 | Spain | 95.8 | 2024 |
| 19 | Hong Kong SAR, China | 95.8 | 2024 |
| 20 | Chile | 95.6 | 2024 |
| 21 | United Kingdom | 95.5 | 2024 |
| 22 | Oman | 95.3 | 2024 |
| 23 | United States | 94.7 | 2024 |
| 24 | Singapore | 94.4 | 2024 |
| 25 | Russia | 94.4 | 2024 |
| 26 | Canada | 94.4 | 2024 |
| 27 | Hungary | 93.8 | 2024 |
| 28 | Finland | 93.7 | 2024 |
| 29 | New Zealand | 93.5 | 2024 |
| 30 | Germany | 93.5 | 2024 |
Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators, indicator IT.NET.USER.ZS (data from the ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Database), most recent value per country, retrieved October 2026. Values rounded to one decimal; ties at 100% are shown as "1=".
A few things stand out. The countries that report 100% are all wealthy Gulf states. The Nordic countries are not at 100%, but they are very close. And several economies that people often assume are leaders, including Japan (85.5%), France (88.7%), and Italy (89.2%), sit lower in the series than many smaller or newer high-income economies.
That last point matters. Japan's lower figure does not by itself mean its networks are poor. The series counts people who used the internet in the past three months, so it can be pulled down by groups who do not, such as some older residents, and it depends on the national survey behind the estimate. Penetration measures who uses the internet, not how good the connection is. For speed, see our ranking of countries with the fastest internet speeds.
What "internet penetration" actually measures
The World Bank's definition, taken from the ITU, is precise: "Internet users are individuals who have used the Internet (from any location) in the last 3 months." The internet can be accessed through computers, mobile phones, game consoles, digital TV, and similar devices.
Three consequences follow from that wording.
It counts users, not subscriptions or lines. A household with a fixed broadband line that nobody uses counts for nothing, while a teenager who borrows a relative's phone twice a month counts in full. This differs from "broadband subscriptions per 100 people," which can exceed 100 in countries where people hold several mobile plans.
It counts anyone in the population, not just adults. A country with a very young population (many children under the age of use) can score lower than its infrastructure suggests, and a country with an aging population can be dragged down by older residents who have never gone online. Population age structure matters, so a ranking by this measure partly reflects demographics.
It depends on surveys and estimates. In countries with household surveys, the ITU uses survey results. Where surveys are missing or old, it models the number. That is why some entries in the low end of the ranking carry reference years such as 2017, 2019, or 2020, and why different sources, including national regulators, can differ by several points for the same country. A figure from a commercial research firm can also differ from an ITU one, because definitions of an "active user" vary.
An easy analogy: penetration is like a library card count. It tells you how many people have walked through the door recently, but nothing about how big the library is, how fast the books arrive, or whether people can afford the late fees.
The global picture in 2025
ITU's Measuring digital development: Facts and Figures 2025, released November 17, 2025, gives the most authoritative recent snapshot.
| Indicator | Figure |
|---|---|
| People using the internet worldwide (2025) | About 6 billion, up from a revised 5.8 billion in 2024 |
| People offline | 2.2 billion, down from a revised 2.3 billion in 2024 |
| Share of offline people living in low- and middle-income countries | 96% |
| Internet use, high-income countries | 94% |
| Internet use, low-income countries | 23% |
| Internet use, urban areas | 85% |
| Internet use, rural areas | 58% |
| Internet use, men | 77% |
| Internet use, women | 71% |
| Internet use, ages 15 to 24 | 82% |
| Internet use, everyone else | 72% |
| Population with 5G coverage, worldwide | 55% |
| 5G coverage, high-income countries | 84% |
| 5G coverage, low-income countries | 4% |
Source: ITU press release, "Facts and Figures 2025," November 17, 2025.
Two numbers deserve extra attention. First, the 27-point rural gap (85% versus 58%) means that living outside a city costs a person more access than being a woman does, though the two overlap. Second, the 6-point gender gap (77% versus 71%) is smaller than it once was, though ITU says the gender and urban-rural divides "continue to narrow but endure."
Another useful comparison comes from DataReportal's Digital 2025 report, a commercial analysis of the same question. It put the number of internet users at 5.56 billion at the start of 2025 (67.9% of the global population) and 2.63 billion offline, with 136 million new users added during 2024 (growth of 2.5%). Its numbers are lower than ITU's because the two organizations use different methods and different population baselines. DataReportal itself warns that UN population revisions can change percentage figures, so comparisons with older editions should be made carefully. When two credible sources disagree by this much, the honest summary is "somewhere between 5.5 and 6 billion people, or about two-thirds to three-quarters of the world."
Penetration by region
The World Bank publishes regional aggregates from the same ITU series, which show how uneven the picture is.
| Region or income group | Internet use (% of population, 2025) |
|---|---|
| Europe and Central Asia | 92.4 |
| East Asia and Pacific | 88.4 |
| Latin America and Caribbean | 83.7 |
| South Asia | 67.8 |
| Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan, and Pakistan | 63.7 |
| Sub-Saharan Africa | 35.7 |
| High income | 94.2 |
| Upper middle income | 88.8 |
| Lower middle income | 62.9 |
| Low income | 23.4 |
| World | 73.6 |
Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators, indicator IT.NET.USER.ZS (ITU data), 2025 values.
Notice the shape. Upper-middle-income countries (88.8%) are only about five points behind high-income countries (94.2%). The steep drop comes between upper-middle and lower-middle income (62.9%), and again between lower-middle and low income (23.4%). In other words, the problem is not a smooth gradient. It is a cliff at the point where a household's budget can no longer absorb a smartphone and a monthly data plan.
The big emerging markets
Most of the world's offline people live in populous middle-income countries, where a share of a large number is still a large number. Here are those countries in the same World Bank series.
| Country | Internet use (%) | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Brazil | 84.5 | 2024 |
| Vietnam | 84.2 | 2024 |
| Mexico | 83.1 | 2024 |
| South Africa | 78.4 | 2024 |
| Egypt | 74.6 | 2024 |
| Indonesia | 72.8 | 2024 |
| Ghana | 72.2 | 2024 |
| India | 70.0 | 2025 |
| Philippines | 67.3 | 2024 |
| Senegal | 60.1 | 2024 |
| Pakistan | 57.3 | 2024 |
| Bangladesh | 53.4 | 2024 |
| Nigeria | 41.2 | 2024 |
| Angola | 40.7 | 2024 |
Source: World Bank, WDI, indicator IT.NET.USER.ZS (ITU data).
India at 70% in 2025 is worth pausing on. With a population well above a billion, a 30% offline share means a larger absolute number of offline people than the entire population of most countries. Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, has fewer than half its people online, and Pakistan and Bangladesh have roughly 43% and 47% of their people offline, respectively. When you add up a handful of large countries, you get most of the world's connectivity gap.
India: how a price war changed the curve
India's story is partly a story of one company. Reliance Jio commercially launched its 4G service on September 5, 2016, and offered free data and voice until December 31, 2016, a promotion later extended to March 31, 2017. Reports compiled on Wikipedia's Jio article record 16 million subscribers in the first month, 50 million within 83 days, and 100 million on February 22, 2017.
The launch triggered a price war that made mobile data far cheaper for many Indian users. The broader lesson is that penetration often jumps when a single binding constraint, here the price of data, is removed rather than rising gently as incomes rise.
India's internet is overwhelmingly mobile. That shapes what works: messaging apps, short video, and voice interfaces tend to thrive where bandwidth, screen size, and typing literacy are limited. A website designed for a desktop and a fast fixed line can be unusable on a low-end phone with an expensive data plan.
China: huge, and walled
China shows a different pattern. The World Bank series gives 91.6% for 2025, one of the higher values among the very large countries. Its internet operates behind what is commonly called the Great Firewall, which began as a government project in 1998, according to Wikipedia's article on the system. Legal groundwork includes State Council Order No. 195 of 1996, the "Interim Regulations on the Management of International Networking of Computer Information Networks," which required international connections to use authorized channels.
The effect is that Chinese users mostly live on a parallel set of domestic platforms. Penetration says nothing about that distinction. A country can be 90% online and still have an internet that looks very different from the global one, a reminder that penetration measures access, not openness.
The bottom of the table: where internet use is lowest
The countries with the lowest reported internet use are concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa, with a few in South and Central Asia.
| Country | Internet use (%) | Year |
|---|---|---|
| South Sudan | 6.7 | 2019 |
| Burundi | 8.6 | 2024 |
| Uganda | 8.9 | 2024 |
| Chad | 12.6 | 2024 |
| Central African Republic | 13.8 | 2024 |
| Eritrea | 14.3 | 2020 |
| Niger | 15.6 | 2024 |
| Afghanistan | 16.1 | 2024 |
| Zambia | 17.1 | 2024 |
| Yemen | 17.5 | 2019 |
| Sudan | 18.6 | 2017 |
| Madagascar | 18.7 | 2024 |
| Malawi | 19.0 | 2024 |
| Democratic Republic of the Congo | 19.7 | 2024 |
| Mozambique | 20.5 | 2024 |
| Ethiopia | 21.9 | 2024 |
| Sierra Leone | 25.1 | 2024 |
| Somalia | 27.9 | 2024 |
| Burkina Faso | 28.3 | 2024 |
| Tanzania | 31.2 | 2024 |
| Rwanda | 31.7 | 2024 |
| Liberia | 32.2 | 2024 |
| Guinea | 33.3 | 2024 |
| Kenya | 35.0 | 2024 |
Source: World Bank, WDI, indicator IT.NET.USER.ZS (ITU data), most recent value per country. Selected countries only.
Read this table with care, for two reasons. First, several entries are old (South Sudan 2019, Yemen 2019, Sudan 2017, Eritrea 2020), which means the true current figure is likely higher, since the world has gained users every year. Second, a few values look out of line with their neighbors, such as Uganda's 8.9% next to Kenya (35.0%) and Tanzania (31.2%). Differences in survey definitions and modeling can create such gaps, so a single outlier is a reason for caution, not for a confident story.
Eritrea: a special case, with older data than it seems
The latest World Bank entry for Eritrea is 14.3% for 2020, which is old data. What the sources establish is narrow: the state-owned EriTel is the sole operator of landline and mobile networks, access to the internet is very limited, and Reporters Without Borders, as summarized on Wikipedia, has reported that authorities ordered blocking of several diaspora websites that criticize the government, with widespread self-censorship.
The broader rule for this topic: when a country's number is extreme, check the year and the source before building a story around it.
North Korea and Turkmenistan: data you should not use
The World Bank series shows 0% for North Korea in 2004 and 18.0% for Turkmenistan in 2016. Those are the last values reported, not current estimates, and they illustrate why a "lowest in the world" claim based on this series is unreliable. Countries that do not report to the ITU, or report rarely, fall out of rankings or sit there frozen at old values.
Why the Gulf states and the Nordics lead
The top of the table is not one story but two.
The Gulf: a state-led build-out. The United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait all report essentially universal use. These are high-income economies, and when income is high, a device and a data plan are a small expense. Their GDP per capita is among the highest in the world, a pattern you can see in our ranking of countries with the highest GDP per capita.
The Nordics and the Netherlands: infrastructure plus public services. Denmark (99.8%), Norway (99.0%), Iceland (98.2%), and the Netherlands (97.0%) reached very high use through a combination of long-running investment in broadband, high incomes, and government services that moved online early. When tax filing, health appointments, and official correspondence are digital by default, citizens have a strong practical reason to be online, and the state has a strong reason to ensure they can be.
Education and literacy matter, but not as a simple cause. Countries with high literacy rates and strong schooling tend to have high internet use, partly because digital skills build on basic literacy. Our articles on countries with the highest literacy rates and the best education systems cover that side of the story.
These factors reinforce each other. Wealth pays for networks and devices, networks make online services viable, online services create demand, and demand justifies more investment. The loop works in the other direction too, which is why it is hard for poorer countries to jump in.
South Korea: near-universal and fast
South Korea sits at 97.9% in the World Bank series, 11th in the table above, and is also frequently ranked among the world's fastest in fixed broadband. Those are two separate achievements. Penetration tells you nearly everyone uses the internet. Speed tells you how good the connection is. You can have one without the other, which is why speed gets its own ranking, and why a country with a modest penetration rate can have excellent fiber in its cities.
What keeps 2.2 billion people offline
ITU's headline finding is that 96% of people who are offline live in low- and middle-income countries. Understanding why requires separating two different gaps.
The coverage gap is the share of people who live where no mobile broadband signal reaches. ITU describes mobile broadband coverage as nearly universal, though quality and affordability gaps remain.
The usage gap is the share of people who live within reach of a signal but do not use the internet. If coverage is nearly universal and 2.2 billion people are still offline, then most of the offline population is in the usage gap, not the coverage gap. The binding constraints are cost, skills, relevance, and safety, not towers.
The main barriers fall into five groups.
- Affordability. ITU reports that access is unaffordable in around 60% of low- and middle-income countries. A smartphone and a monthly data plan can eat a large fraction of a poor household's budget, and the device is often the larger hurdle.
- Digital skills and literacy. Using a smartphone for anything beyond calls assumes the ability to read, type, and navigate interfaces. Where literacy is limited, that excludes people even when they can pay.
- Relevant content and language. If the services that matter to a person's life are not available in the language they speak, there is less reason to pay for access.
- Quality of coverage. Having a signal is not the same as having a usable one. 5G reaches 55% of the world's population, but only 4% in low-income countries compared with 84% in high-income ones, so the experience of "being online" varies enormously.
- Gender and social norms. Women are less likely to be online than men: 71% versus 77% worldwide. Gaps can be larger in specific countries and regions, and ITU notes they continue to narrow but endure.
There is also a quieter category: people who are offline by choice or by circumstance, including some older adults, people in places with shutdowns or heavy restrictions, and people who find nothing online that justifies the cost.
Satellite and other new routes
Low-Earth-orbit satellite constellations have expanded options for remote areas, and our explainer on how satellite internet reduces latency describes why orbit height matters for responsiveness. But for the usage gap, which is mostly about cost and skills, a new way to deliver signal does not by itself solve the problem. A satellite dish that costs more than a household earns in months does little for a household that is already inside a mobile network's coverage.
Penetration is only the first layer
A country can top the penetration table and still differ sharply in the quality of its internet. Think of access as a ladder with several rungs: some use at all, then reliable broadband, then speed, then low latency, then affordable and secure services.
- Speed is a separate ranking, linked at the top of this article.
- Mobile network generation matters for experience: see countries with the most 5G coverage.
- Physical infrastructure such as cables and exchanges decides resilience: see how fiber optic cables transmit data and how the internet actually works.
- Where compute lives is another divide, covered in countries with the most data centers.
- Skills matter for what people do once online: see countries with the most tech workers.
This layered view corrects a common mistake. Treating the penetration percentage as the whole story hides the fact that, at the top, the question becomes quality and equity. In low-income countries it is still whether basic access exists.
How to read any internet ranking critically
Rankings circulate widely and often contradict each other. Five checks help.
- Check the year. Many "2025" rankings use 2023 or 2024 data, and some low-income entries are older still.
- Check the definition. "Used the internet in the last three months" is not the same as "has a subscription" or "is an active social media user."
- Check the denominator. Is it total population or adults? Different choices change the percentage, especially in young countries.
- Check the source of the number. The ITU, national regulators, and commercial firms use different methods. When they disagree, report a range rather than picking one.
- Be suspicious of round extremes. A claim like "1% penetration" or "100% penetration" deserves a second look. Reports of 100% in the Gulf are plausible for usage but hide differences between citizens and residents, and the same caution applies at the other end.
Frequently asked questions
Q: Which country has the highest internet penetration? A: Several Gulf states, including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait, report 100% internet use in the World Bank series built on ITU data. Denmark (99.8%), Luxembourg (99.1%), and Norway (99.0%) follow. At these levels, the differences are smaller than the measurement error in the underlying surveys.
Q: How many people in the world are still offline? A: ITU estimates 2.2 billion people were offline in 2025, down from a revised 2.3 billion in 2024, with about 6 billion online. Of those offline, 96% live in low- and middle-income countries. DataReportal, using a different method, estimated 2.63 billion offline at the start of 2025.
Q: Why do different sources give different internet penetration figures? A: Sources define "user" differently, use different population baselines, and rely on different surveys or models. The ITU counts people who used the internet in the last three months, while commercial reports may use other definitions. Differences of several points for the same country are common.
Q: Is the digital divide closing? A: Slowly. ITU reports that the offline population fell from a revised 2.3 billion to 2.2 billion between 2024 and 2025, and that gender and urban-rural gaps continue to narrow. But the divide persists: 94% of people in high-income countries use the internet versus 23% in low-income countries.
Q: Does high internet penetration mean fast internet? A: No. Penetration counts people who use the internet, not the speed or quality of their connection. A country can have very high penetration and mediocre speeds, or the reverse in its cities. Speed and mobile network quality are measured separately, including in our broadband and 5G rankings.
Q: Why is mobile so important for getting people online? A: In many low- and middle-income countries, phones are the main or only device. ITU notes that mobile broadband coverage is nearly universal, so for most people the obstacles are the cost of a device and data plan, skills, and relevant content rather than the absence of a signal.
Q: What is the difference between the coverage gap and the usage gap? A: The coverage gap is the share of people living where no mobile broadband signal reaches. The usage gap is the share of people who live within coverage but do not use the internet. With coverage nearly universal and 2.2 billion people offline, most of the offline population is in the usage gap.
The takeaway
Internet penetration looks like a technology statistic, but its pattern is really a map of income, age, and public policy. The Gulf states and the Nordics are near the ceiling because wealth, infrastructure, and digital services reinforce each other. The lowest values cluster where incomes are lowest, and the steepest drop in the data is between lower-middle and low income, not at the very top.
The most important finding is also the least intuitive. With mobile broadband coverage nearly universal, the main reason 2.2 billion people stay offline is not that the signal is missing. It is that devices, data, skills, and relevant content are out of reach. That means the last stretch of the connectivity gap will not be closed mainly by building towers or launching satellites. It will be closed, if it is, by making access cheap enough and useful enough to be worth using.
Sources
- International Telecommunication Union. Measuring digital development: Facts and Figures 2025 and the press release of November 17, 2025.
- World Bank, World Development Indicators. Individuals using the Internet (% of population), IT.NET.USER.ZS (definition and source: ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Database).
- DataReportal. Digital 2025: Global Overview Report.
- Wikipedia. Jio, Internet censorship in Eritrea, and Great Firewall.
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About the Author
SciHub101 is an independent science and technology publication founded and edited by Buğra Sözeri, a software engineer and app developer based in Türkiye. AI tools assist with drafting and research. Source documentation in the existing archive is uneven, and articles are being reviewed and corrected. The Editorial Team byline identifies editorial responsibility; it does not certify specialist or independent human review. Where we compare products, anything built by our own team is labelled as such — see the editorial guidelines and About page for how corrections and disclosures work.
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