Global Internet Users Now at 3.2 Billion

According to the World Bank, the number of internet users globally had more than tripled within this decade, jumping from 1billion in 2005 to about 3.2billion by the end of 2015.

This was revealed through World Bank Report for 2016, which was made available during the presentation of the World Development Report (WDR 2016 ) on Digital Dividends.

The report said that digital revolution had brought immediate private benefits-easier communication and information, greater convenience, free digital products and new forms of leisure, adding it has also created a profound sense of social connectedness and global community.

According to the report, more households in developing countries own a mobile phone than have access to electricity or clean water, and nearly 70 percent of the bottom fifth of the population in developing countries own a mobile phone.

However the report stressed that digital divide was still large, adding that nearly 60 percent of the world’s people were still offline and could not fully take part in the digital economy.