Nearly a quarter of a billion new users came online for the first time in 2017. For many of us, being online and using the internet is a habit, one that has changed our routines, our communication and our daily lives immensely. Half of the world is still offline though, even as research proves that won't stay like that after a few years.
We read through the new 2018 Global Digital suite of reports from We Are Social and Hootsuite to find these figures.
Key findings
In 2018, 4.021 billion people are online
Not only has the number of internet users gone up by 7 per cent, the amount of time each of us spends online has also gone up.
3.196 billion use social media
There were 11 new users of social media per second in 2017, translating to one million new users per second daily. Worldwide, Filipinos spend the longest time on social media.
5.135 billion people use mobile devices
Across some areas of the world in 2017, 200 million people got their first mobile device in 2017 - and around two-thirds of the entire world population now own or use a mobile device.
We spend one-third of our lives online
The latest data from Global Web Index, featured in the report, shows that the average internet user now spends around 6 hours each day using internet-powered devices and services – that’s roughly one-third of their waking lives.
