New stats from the UN’s International Telecommunication Union. The percentage of the global population using the internet surged from 54% to 63% between 2019 and 2021. There’s an extensive urban, and rural divide – 76% versus 39%, and age is a factor too. Africa is far behind, at only 33% of the population using the internet, versus at least 60% in every other region.
4G networks now reach 88% of the world’s population.
Why do we care?
I’d noted this data and wanted to make sure I shared it – it’s about a bit of perspective. It’s important to remember that not everyone is online – broadly, across the world, but also in local communities. Access to digital technologies will continue to open up markets, even locally – it may be broadly consumer-driven… yet that still opens up growth for downstream customers and customer’s customers. Just keep that in the back of our minds.