Digital Around the World

A total of 6.04 billion people around the world were using the internet at the start of October 2025, equivalent to 73.2 percent of the world’s total population.

This impressive figure means that close to three-quarters of the world’s population is now online, and current trends suggest that we’ll reach that next momentous milestone on the world’s digital journey sometime in 2026.

Encouragingly, internet user numbers continue to grow too, with reported figures increasing by 294 million over the past 12 months.

However, despite healthy year-on-year growth of +5.1 percent, the current pace of change is still somewhat slower than the growth rates that we saw during the middle of the last decade.

Moreover, the most recent figure for growth in the global internet user total has been heavily influenced by an increase in reported internet use in the world’s most populous nation, India.

Despite continuing improvements in global internet access, 2.21 billion people remain “unconnected” to the internet today, with the majority of these people living in Southern Asia and in Africa.

These figures show that there’s still plenty more work to do before the world reaches the goal of “universal access”, and the quality of people’s internet access remains an important consideration too.

The vast majority of the world’s internet users – a resounding 96.0 percent – use a mobile phone to go online at least some of the time, and mobile phones now account for close to 60 percent of the world’s web traffic.

Meanwhile, just under 6 in 10 internet users in the world’s larger economies still use laptops and desktops for at least some of their online activities, but trends indicate that this share figure has been declining steadily over recent years.

Social media headlines

Social media use continues to grow too, with the total number of active social media user “identities” reaching 5.66 billion in October 2025.

That’s equal to 68.7 percent of all the people on Earth, indicating that more than 2 in 3 people on Earth now use social media each month.

For added perspective, Kepios’s latest analysis indicates that 93.8 percent of all internet users now use social media every month, while the latest data from GWI indicates that 96.9 percent of all adult internet users aged 16 and above use at least one social network or messaging platform each month.

And social media use continues to grow, too, with the latest data indicating that active social media user identities have increased by +4.8 percent over the past 12 months.

More specifically, 259 million new user identities started using social media between October 2024 and October 2025, equating to growth of more than 700,000 new users every day.

That means that social media grew at an average rate of 7.8 new users every single second since this time last year.

If you want to dig deeper into social media use by platform, you’ll find all of the latest stats here.

Global mobile adoption

Continued growth in mobile use is also helping to fuel increases in digital adoption and activity.

The latest data reveal that 70.1 percent of the world’s total population now uses a mobile phone, with the number of “unique” mobile users reaching 5.78 billion in October 2025.

Meanwhile, the number of cellular connections associated with smartphones continues to increase, and – with 7.4 billion smartphones now in use – the latest figures indicate that these handsets now account for roughly 87 percent of the mobile phones in use around the world today.

Explore the global digital landscape

Want to know more about the digital media landscape around the world?

Our Digital 2026 Global Overview Report packs a hefty 700 slides, and has all the latest need-to-know digital stats from around the world.

You can read the full report in the embed below (see here if that’s not working for you), but click here if you’d like to dig deeper into all of the context, trends, and implications of these numbers.

Alternatively, scroll down this page to find a summary of all the key headlines.

Internet use around the world

There are 6.04 billion internet users in the world today.
The total number of internet users around the world grew by 294 million during the past 12 months.
Globally, internet user numbers are growing at an annual rate of 5.1 percent, but year-on-year growth is even higher in many developing economies. Routine research delays also mean that growth rates for the most recent 12 to 18 months often under-represent actual trends, so we anticipate that real adoption rates may be meaningfully higher than the latest data suggest.
The average global internet user now spends 33 hours and 27 minutes each week consuming online media, although note that simultaneous use of different kinds of media may mean that this figure overstates actual online time.
Added together, the world’s internet users currently spend more than 1.2 billion years of combined human existence consuming digital media each year.

Essential social media stats

Kepios analysis shows that there are 5.66 billion active social media user “identities” in the world today – equivalent to 68.7 percent of the world’s total population. However, note that these user “identities” may not represent unique individuals.
The number of social media user identities around the world grew by 259 million in the past 12 months.
Globally, social media users are growing at a rate of 4.8 percent per year, with the average active user visiting 6.75 different social platforms every month.
GWI reports that the average global user spends 18 hours and 36 minutes using social media each week, which includes browsing social networks and watching online videos on platforms like YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook.
Added together, the world spends roughly 620 million years consuming content on social media platforms each year.

Mobile stats from around the world

There are 5.78 billion unique mobile phone users in the world today, according to the latest data from GSMA Intelligence.
More than 7 in 10 people now use a mobile phone, with global adoption currently standing at 70.1 percent.
The total number of unique mobile users around the world grew by 108 million over the past 12 months.
Unique mobile users are currently growing at a rate of 1.9 percent per year. Meanwhile, millions of people have also upgraded from ‘feature’ phones to smartphones over the past 12 months.
The latest data from Ericsson shows that the number of mobile connections associated with smartphones has reached 7.38 billion, accounting for roughly 87 percent of all the mobile phones in use around the world today [note that many people use more than one mobile phone].
The number of smartphones in use is growing at an annual rate of 3.5 percent, with 250 million new smartphones coming into use over the past 12 months.

Essential ecommerce stats

56.5 percent of internet users aged 16+ buy something online every week, according to the latest data from GWI.
More people now make purchases via mobile devices than via desktops and laptops, but computers are still a central part of people’s online shopping behaviours, especially across Northern America and Europe.
Statista estimates that the world’s ecommerce users will spend US$3.66 trillion on online consumer goods purchases in 2025, with global ecommerce spend increasing by 13 percent versus 2024’s total [note that consumer goods do not include things like flights, which we detail elsewhere in our Digital 2026 Global Overview Report].
Statista also reports that the average ecommerce shopper around the world now spends US$1,127 per year on online consumer goods purchases.

Note: we update the numbers on this page on a regular basis, so if you’d like to link to a specific set of stats, you’d be safer linking to one of our ‘static’ reports – click here if you’d like some help finding the right one.

More global insights

You’ll find links to some of our latest reports below, but simply click here if you’d like to search our complete library of in-depth insights and trends.