Digital access reached 68% of the world’s population in 2024, but about 2.6 billion people remained offline. The gap is shaped not only by whether a connection exists, but also by income, gender, age, education, location, affordability, devices, and network quality.
Contents
- Global internet access and income
- Gender differences in internet use
- Age, education, and digital skills
- Urban-rural connectivity gaps
- Affordability, devices, and infrastructure
- Connection quality and usage intensity
- The household-level divide in the United States
Global internet access and income
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) estimated that 5.5 billion people used the Internet in 2024, equivalent to 68% of the world population. The global use rate rose from 65% in 2023 to 68% in 2024, yet roughly one-third of the world—2.6 billion people—was still offline. These figures measure internet use, not whether every person has equally affordable, fast, or reliable access. (Measuring digital development: Facts and Figures 2024)
Income level remains one of the clearest dividing lines:
- Internet use reached 93% of the population in high-income countries in 2024.
- The rate was 27% in low-income countries.
- Only 35% of people in least developed countries used the Internet.
- Only 39% of people in landlocked developing countries used it.
- Internet use stood at 38% of the population in Africa.
The ITU’s Global Connectivity Report 2025 adds a more recent perspective: in 2025, most low-income countries still had internet-penetration rates below 50%. This is a report-period observation, not a universal rate for every low-income country. (Statistics — Global Connectivity Report 2025, Chapter 2)
Gender differences in internet use
Globally, 70% of men and 65% of women used the Internet in 2024. The difference amounted to 189 million more male than female users. The gap was larger in 2021, when the male-female difference was 277 million users, compared with 189 million in 2024. (Measuring digital development: Facts and Figures 2024)
Regional and income differences were substantial:
- In Africa, 43% of men and 31% of women used the Internet in 2024.
- In the Arab States, usage was 75% for men and 64% for women.
- In the Asia-Pacific region, usage was 68% for men and 64% for women.
- In the Americas, the figures were much closer: 87% of men and 86% of women.
- In low-income countries, 32% of men and 21% of women used the Internet.
- In lower-middle-income countries, 60% of men and 49% of women used it.
The ITU reported a global Internet gender-parity score of 0.92 in 2025. The score is calculated as the female share of Internet users divided by the male share, so it describes relative participation rather than equal access to devices, speed, or affordability. (Statistics — Global Connectivity Report 2025, Chapter 2)
Age, education, and digital skills
Young people are more likely than older age groups to be online. Worldwide, 79% of people aged 15–24 used the Internet in 2024, compared with 66% of the rest of the population. The youth rate was therefore 13 percentage points higher. In low-income countries, people aged 15–24 were 1.9 times as likely to use the Internet as other age groups in 2024; the corresponding ratio was 2.2 in 2021. (Measuring digital development: Facts and Figures 2024)
The gap varies by region. In Africa, 53% of people aged 15–24 used the Internet in 2024, compared with 34% of the rest of the population. In Europe, the corresponding rates were 98% and 90%. Age is therefore associated with participation, but the size of the difference depends heavily on the surrounding connectivity environment.
Education is another major dividing line. The ITU reported that nearly all people with tertiary education use the Internet, while the education gap exceeds 60 percentage points in some countries. This comparison uses the latest available country data in the 2025 report, so it does not represent one single global measurement year. (Statistics — Global Connectivity Report 2025, Chapter 2)
Digital-skills data are less complete than access data. From 2020 onward, only 90 countries submitted any comparable ICT-skills data to the ITU, and only 40 countries provided comparable data for the ITU’s 2024 assessment. Among countries reporting communication and collaboration skills in 2023 or the latest available year, more than 80% of Internet users had at least basic skills in that area. The limited coverage means global skill comparisons should be interpreted cautiously. (Measuring digital development: Facts and Figures 2024)
Urban-rural connectivity gaps
Location strongly affects the likelihood of being online. In 2024, 83% of urban residents globally used the Internet, compared with 48% of rural residents. Of the 2.6 billion people offline, 1.8 billion lived in rural areas and 800 million lived in urban areas. The global urban-to-rural use ratio was 1.7 in every year from 2021 through 2024. (Measuring digital development: Facts and Figures 2024)
| Geography | Urban-rural internet-use measure | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Global | 83% urban; 48% rural | 2024 |
| Europe | 1.1 urban-to-rural ratio | 2024 |
| Africa | 2.5 urban-to-rural ratio | 2024 |
| Asia-Pacific | 1.6 to 1.7 ratio | 2021 to 2024 |
| Low-income countries | 16% rural use; 2.9 ratio | 2024 |
Europe had the narrowest regional ratio listed here, at 1.1 in 2024. Africa’s ratio was 2.5. In the Asia-Pacific region, the ratio widened from 1.6 in 2021 to 1.7 in 2024. In low-income countries, only 16% of rural residents used the Internet in 2024, while the urban-to-rural ratio narrowed from 3.1 in 2021 to 2.9 in 2024.
Africa’s 2024 rates were 57% for urban residents and 23% for rural residents. The geographic gap therefore appears both in broad regional comparisons and within regions where national infrastructure and income conditions differ.
Affordability, devices, and infrastructure
Prices improved at the global median between 2023 and 2024. The median price of a 2GB mobile-broadband basket fell from 1.3% to 1.1% of gross national income (GNI) per capita. The median fixed-broadband basket fell from 2.8% to 2.5% of GNI per capita. These are income-relative measures, so a lower global median does not mean the same affordability for every household.
The burden remained much higher in poorer economies. In 2024, a mobile-broadband basket cost lower-middle-income subscribers about six times as much of their income as it cost high-income subscribers, and about 19 times as much for low-income subscribers. A fixed-broadband subscription cost nearly one-third of average income in a low-income country. Relative to income, mobile Internet costs in Africa were 14 times higher than in Europe. (Measuring digital development: Facts and Figures 2024)
Coverage is broader than actual use. Mobile-broadband networks covered 96% of the global population in 2024. However, 5G covered 84% of people in high-income countries and only 4% in low-income countries. In low-income countries, nearly 20% of people had no 5G access and another 28% relied exclusively on 3G. Coverage, affordability, and the capabilities of available networks are separate parts of the digital divide.
Connection quality and usage intensity
The divide also concerns how much data people can practically use. In early 2025, average global download speeds reached 92 Mbit/s for mobile broadband and 118 Mbit/s for fixed broadband. The ITU reported that speeds in low-income economies were only about 20%–30% of those in high-income economies during that period. These are average economy-level comparisons, not a guarantee for an individual connection. (Statistics — Global Connectivity Report 2025, Chapter 2)
Average monthly mobile-broadband traffic provides another measure of usage intensity. In 2024, subscriptions in high-income countries used 16.2 GB per month on average, compared with 2 GB in low-income countries. Across regions, average monthly traffic was 3.1 GB per subscription in Africa and 19.1 GB in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Lower traffic can reflect limited affordability, slower networks, less intensive online activity, or all of these factors; the figures alone do not identify the cause. (Measuring digital development: Facts and Figures 2024)
The household-level divide in the United States
U.S. access is high overall, but household resources still correlate with the type of connection available. In a Pew Research Center survey conducted from May 19 to September 5, 2023, 95% of U.S. adults said they used the Internet, 90% owned a smartphone, and 80% subscribed to home broadband. (Americans’ Use of Mobile Technology and Home Broadband)
The income differences were pronounced:
- Smartphone ownership was 98% among adults in households earning at least $100,000, compared with 79% among those earning under $30,000.
- Home-broadband subscription was 95% in the at-least-$100,000 group, compared with 57% in the under-$30,000 group.
- Smartphone dependence—owning a smartphone but lacking home broadband—affected 15% of U.S. adults overall.
- Smartphone dependence affected 28% of adults in households earning under $30,000 and 4% of adults in households earning at least $100,000.
Place mattered as well. Home-broadband subscription was 73% among rural U.S. adults, compared with 86% among suburban adults and 77% among urban adults in the same survey. A separate NTIA estimate found that 83% of U.S. people age 3 and older used the Internet in 2023, up from 80% in 2021. The Pew and NTIA figures use different populations and methods, so they should not be treated as interchangeable measures. (New NTIA Data Show 13 Million More Internet Users in the U.S. in 2023 than 2021)