A new report from Internet.org presents a sobering look at the state of global Internet access: there’s growth, but it’s slowing.
“State of Connectivity: 2014” from the Facebook-backed organization estimates there are three billion people online, worldwide. That, the report states, is 37.9% of the global population that “use the Internet once a year.”
Disparities become clear by the state of development in a country. What Internet.org calls developed countries have a 78% online access rate; developing countries, only 32%.
And the rate of growth of Internet access is dramatically slowing: 6.6% in 2014 compared to the 14.7% of four years earlier.
Internet.org concludes that three factors — infrastructure, affordability and relevance — need to be addressed “in order for the entire world to connect to the internet.”
The full report can be downloaded here.
