The internet continues to grow and break the digital divide between regions, countries, and continents.
This article highlights relevant research, fundamental data, critical information on how the internet is used, social media usage, and analysis of search data.
Top 8 Internet Usage Statistics (Editor’s Pick)
- 4.9 billion people were on the internet in January 2022.
- 57% of the internet is written in the English language.
- Almost 100% of consumers planned to purchase via social media in 2022.
- Men use social media networks more than women.
- 79% of 8–11-year-olds accessed the internet with a tablet in 2021-2022.
- Over 61% of all web traffic now comes from a mobile device.
- Google enjoys over 90% search engine market share on the internet.
- The internet houses over 1.12 billion websites as of January 2023.
Infographic
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Internet Usage Statistics by Demographic
1. There will be more than 7.5 billion internet users in 2030.
For context, the projected world population by 2030 is 8.5 billion. Thus, 90% of the world’s population is expected to be online by then. This contrasts with 75% of the world population projected to be online by 2022.
2. 4.9 billion people were on the internet in January 2022.
That is more than the population of China and India combined, representing 62.5% of the world’s population.
3. Bots account for more than half of all internet traffic.
Humans only contribute 48.2% of internet traffic, leaving 51.8% to bots. Some of these bots are used by companies like Google to index web content, maintain web infrastructure, and curb malware.
4. 96% of UK households had access to the internet in 2022.
This number is up 3% from the previous year, leaving only 4% of UK households without internet.
5. The United States has a 92% internet penetration rate.
The US had 307.2 million users in January 2022, meaning that only 8% of its population is offline. Still, the entire North American region only takes up a 6.7% share of internet users in the reported period.
6. Nigeria leads the mobile internet traffic standing at 83.56%.
As of January 24, 2023, South Africa is directly behind at 80.2%, closely marked by India, with 72.59% of its internet traffic being accounted for by mobile devices.
7. Canada’s internet penetration rate grew to 96.5% at the start of 2022.
Canada added 312,000 internet users between 2021 – 2022, representing a 0.9% year-on-year increase.
As of January 2023, Mexico’s mobile internet users account for 52.88% of all internet traffic from the region. The US only manages 47.57%, coming second.
9. The UK had over 11 million domains under management at the end of 2022.
Over 9.7 million were third-level domains, while more than 1.3 million were second-level domains.
10. 57% of the internet is written in the English language.
As of January 2023, the Russian language covers 5.2% of the web to take second place, while Spanish (4.6%) wraps up the top three known languages on websites.
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11. South African users spend the most time using the internet.
As of 2022, users in SA average 10 hours and 46 minutes of internet usage daily. The Philippines follow the region with 10 hours and 27 minutes, then Brazil with 10 hours and 19 minutes.
Japanese internet users spent the least time online, averaging just 4 hours and 26 minutes across all devices daily.
Social Media Internet Usage Statistics
Meta swoops the top three positions, with Instagram (14.8%) and Facebook (14.5%) rounding up the spots. Outside Meta, WeChat is next in line with 11.4% of the favored social media app market share.
13. UK users averaged the most time on TikTok (27.3 hours/month) as of January 2022.
Russia is surprisingly second, with users from the region averaging 26.3 hours/month. The USA rounds up the top three (at 25.6 hours per month), while Argentina (14.7 hours per month) recorded the least numbers in the top 15 countries surveyed.
99.7% of Gen Z researched a brand or product using social media networks in 2022. Of these, 52.3% are female, while 47.4% are male.
In contrast, 56.8% of baby boomers (55-64) use social media to research any brand or product.
15. Facebook had 20.9 million Canadian users in early 2022.
Most of Facebook’s Canadian audience (54.1%) was female during the coverage period. Other Meta products also enjoyed robust user bases in Canada, with Instagram scoring 17.4 million users (52.6% of 13+ internet users).
Instagram, Tiktok, and Snapchat were the preferred shopping options for Gen Z (18-24 years old) internet social media users. In contrast, Gen X and Baby Boomers category (41-75) would make most of their purchases on Pinterest and Facebook.
By July 2022, 59% of the global population (not global internet users alone) used social media. This accounts for 4.7 billion people, growing by 227 million within the previous 12 months.
18. Social media users averaged 2.5 hours on platforms daily in 2022.
This number has grown by 3.5% from H1 2021, tacking on an extra five minutes from the previous period. Likewise, the average user now browses an average of 7.4 social media sites monthly, contributing to the extra time spent on platforms.
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As of the start of July 2022, men accounted for 54.3% of all social media users, while women were slightly in the minority, at 45.7%.
20. Twitter users published more than 230 billion tweets in 2022.
In contrast, Instagram received 27 billion photos from users in the same timeframe, while over 2 trillion videos were viewed on YouTube.
21. YouTube had 33.3 million Canadian users in early 2022.
YouTube had a 50.5% female and 49.9% male Canadian audience, reaching over 90% of the total Canadian internet population in early 2022.
Kids & Internet Usage Statistics
22. 79% of 8–11-year-olds accessed the internet with a tablet in 2021-2022.
A slightly smaller 71% use a smartphone instead, while laptop users came in last, at 55%. However, only 66% of these kids own their tablets, and 49% have a personal smartphone.
23. More kids play online games as they grow older.
In 2022, there’s a 7% difference in the number of 8–11-year-olds who game online (69%) and 12–15-year-olds who also play online games (76%).
However, 84% of this age range already use messaging apps and sites. The numbers grow with age, considering that 91% of 12–15-year-olds use social media websites, and 89% have social media profiles.
25. YouTube was the most used app by kids on the internet in 2021.
Most kids (44.4%) searched the internet for video, audio, and software. YouTube ranks highest among 5–15-year-olds as their preferred video app, leapfrogging Netflix and BBC.
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Internet Usage Statistics by Device
26. Over 61% of all web traffic now comes from a mobile device.
According to October 2022 data, 92.1% of all internet users have also accessed the web with a mobile phone at some point. In contrast, 71.2% of internet users have accessed the web with a laptop or desktop device at some time.
27. Almost 69% of internet traffic from Africa was from a mobile device in 2022.
Asia comes second to Africa (67.81%). At the same time, Oceania performs the worst, with only 46.26% of all its internet traffic coming from mobile devices.
28. Android users on YouTube averaged 23.7 hours per month by January 2022.
They also spent 19.6 hours monthly on Facebook and 18.6 hours monthly on WhatsApp. Snapchat is the least popular social media app among Android users, averaging just 3 hours of monthly usage.
29. 28% of Americans aged 18-29 depended on mobile devices to access the internet in 2022.
Only 11% of Americans aged 30-49 depended on mobile devices for web access, lower than for the 50–64-year-olds (13%) and users over 65 (12%).
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30. Only 6% of high-income earners depend on their smartphones for internet access.
Smartphone dependency for internet access is higher (27%) for groups earning less than $30,000/year. The numbers are halved (13%) for groups making between $30,000 – $74,999 yearly, while those earning $75,000 and above prefer other devices for internet access in 2022.
Internet Search Statistics
31. Google is the most popular website on the internet.
This is followed by YouTube, also owned by Google, and Tmall (a Chinese retailer).
Bing follows in second place with 2.8% of the global search market share.
Bing outperforms Google in China with 12.19% of the market share to clinch third place, only behind Sogou with 12.81% of the market share. In contrast, Google takes 2.47% of the market share to come last in the region.
34. Google handled over 99,000 queries per second in 2022.
This works into more than 8.5 billion daily searches globally.
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General Internet Usage Statistics
35. The internet houses over 1.12 billion websites as of January 2023.
Likewise, over 370 million registered domain names are on the internet. But only about 18% (201 million+) of those websites are still active today.
36. The most popular and used domain name extensions are .com, .net, and .org.
As of September 2022, over 63 million domain names were registered on GoDaddy. US registrars dominate the top ten, with NameCheap coming in second at over 12.3 million registrations. Only the Canadian registrar, Tucows, breaks up the top-five monopoly of US registrars with a comparatively smaller 9.2 million share.
37. Google Chrome is the choice browser for over 65% of internet users.
Safari enjoys an 18.3% internet browser market share, while Edge comes in a distant third with 4.23% of the market share. However, the story changes in the US market, where 52.95% of mobile internet users prefer Safari, and only 42.73% use Google Chrome.
38. 31.7% of internet users aged 16-64 discover a new brand or product via search engines.
TV ads come dangerously close at 31.1%, while word-of-mouth referrals stay in the top-three mix with 28.1% in January 2022.
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39. The average UK household consumed 456GB/month in May 2022.
Southall featured households consuming an average of 506GB/month (the highest), while Llandrindod households consumed 308GB/month.
40. 47% of web users will rarely or never click on ads.
25% of respondents are likelier to click organic results than ads. However, 19% of users in the study cannot even differentiate between the two.
Break the Digital Divide
The internet is crucial in connecting the world, opening new opportunities, and improving the quality of life.
However, it has its dangers, especially over most unsecured public and private networks.
Thus, grab a VPN for online protection to stay safe from government surveillance, hackers, snoops, and other internet dangers.
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