Internet a change agent: An overview of internet penetration and growth across the world Pandita Ramesh* Central Library, Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University, Rajouri, Jammu & Kashmir, India *Corresponding Author- rameshpandita90@gmail.com
Online published on 17 July, 2017. Abstract The present study seeks to examine the internet penetration and growth across the world and to look for the reasons of its disproportionate penetration distribution. The study shall prove of great help in understanding the shortcomings involved with the internet penetration and the possible measures thereof, which can prove handy in making the internet a household name. The scope of the study is global in nature. The study is based on secondary data, retrieved from the Internet World Statistics. The data retrieved from the website are updated up to March 31, 2017, as such may vary with the actual figures by the time this paper is published. Nearly 51% of the global population is still deprived of the internet access, as the internet penetration has reached to 49.63% by the end of March 31, 2017. The China, India and the US are the worlds three largest internet using countries with an individual global user share percentage of 19.60%, 12.38% and 7.69%, respectively. But, in terms of Internet penetration percentage, India and China still have to go a long way to narrow down their digital divide. Falkland Islands, Iceland and Bermuda are the leading countries having highest internet penetration, with an individual penetration percentage of 96.90%, 96.55% & 95.30% respectively. Internet penetration on average has grown at 12.60% annually during the last decade, which means by the turn of the year 2020, 76.90% of the global population will be having access to the internet. Top Keyterms WWW, Information Technology, Internet Access, Internet Penetration, Language. Top |