Sovereign and dependent territory rows of the World Bank “Individuals using the Internet (% of population)” indicator (top 30 by most recent year). Coverage starts in the 1990s. Aggregates (region.id === “NA”) excluded.
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How to use this chart
Play/Pause starts and stops the year-by-year animation, the year slider jumps to any year, and the speed selector (0.5×, 1×, 2×) changes playback speed. Each year shows the top 12 entries out of the 30 held in the dataset.
About this ranking
About this metric. “Internet Users by Country (Time Series)” reformats data published by the World Bank (World Bank indicator code IT.NET.USER.ZS). Values are expressed in %.
What to watch. Watch the leadership change hands in waves: Nordic countries in the 1990s, East Asian hubs in the 2000s, Gulf states in the 2010s. Internet adoption swept the world region by region, and the bar swaps trace each wave.
Caveats. Definitions of “Internet use” vary by survey (e.g. used within the past three months), and many countries rely on self-reported household data, so ranks separated by a few points are within the noise. In absolute user numbers, China and India dwarf everyone.
Trends in the data
This indicator has almost run out of room at the right-hand end. Of the 27 countries with a 2024 value, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates all read exactly 100.00%, and even last-placed Oman is at 95.25%. The spread between top and bottom is just 4.75 points. The 0.71-point spread in 1990 existed because everyone was near zero; the 4.75-point spread in 2024 exists because everyone is near the ceiling. Once an indicator tops out, rank stops carrying information.
The pace of adoption differed sharply by region. The 1990 leaders were Norway at 0.71%, Switzerland 0.60%, Australia 0.58% and Sweden 0.58% — the Nordics and the English-speaking world. By 2001 East Asia had broken in, with Norway at 64.00%, South Korea 56.60% and Switzerland 55.10%. In 2013 it was Iceland 96.55%, Bermuda 95.30% and Norway 95.05%. And in 2024 the leaders are Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Denmark and Kuwait — a Gulf line-up. The leading group turned over three times in 25 years.
Rank movements are correspondingly violent. Saudi Arabia went from 12th to 2nd, the UAE from 13th to 3rd, Bahrain from 10th to 1st, Monaco from 15th to 6th, Liechtenstein from 17th to 9th and Iceland from 18th to 10th. Falling the other way: Sweden from 4th to 25th, the United Kingdom from 7th to 26th, Australia from 3rd to 19th, Switzerland from 2nd to 15th and the Netherlands from 5th to 17th. Early movers overtaken by latecomers is the signature pattern of an indicator with a ceiling.
The 30-country average rose from 0.10% in 1990 to 97.51% in 2024 — a piece of social infrastructure replaced wholesale in 34 years. Two caveats, though. The definition of “use” varies by survey (use within the past three months, for example), and many countries rely on self-reported household surveys, so differences of a few points are within noise. A reading of 100% is not strict proof that everyone is online. And because the ranking keeps the top 30 by latest value, countries below 95.25% in 2024 are absent — China and India, with the largest user populations in the world, along with Japan, do not appear here at all.
Trivia quiz
Which network, first operational in the US in 1969, is regarded as the ancestor of the internet?
ARPANET, built by the US defense research agency ARPA, which pioneered packet switching. (Source)
Who invented the World Wide Web in 1989?
Tim Berners-Lee, who proposed the hypertext system while at CERN, the European particle-physics lab. (Source)
What is the term for gaps in access to the internet and ICT across countries, regions and generations?
The digital divide; cross-country penetration rates are one way to gauge it. (Source)
Source
World Bank — Individuals using the Internet (% of population) (IT.NET.USER.ZS)