Internet access: How many people on Earth are online?

Internet access: How many people on Earth are online?

12/2/21 7:00PM

More than one-third of the world's population has never used the internet, according to a new global report from the UN’s International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

The ITU estimates that there are now 4.9 billion people online, up almost 800 million on the number pre-pandemic.

That progress was accelerated by the pandemic, but it still leaves ~2.9 billion people (roughly 9x the population of the US), without access. Many of those people live in lower-income or developing countries, with access in the least-developed countries in the world at just 27%.

‍Extremely online

‍Most of you reading this, and us who are writing it, could probably be described as extremely online. The internet likely touches our work, personal and social lives in some way. That's not the case for everyone who has access. Many of the 4.9 billion who have access might only have it infrequently, through shared devices or with a poor quality connection.

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The most watched soccer match in US history got less than a third of the views the Super Bowl did

Between a top-spot finish in the group stage, a sweeping performance against Bosnia and Herzegovina in the round of 32, and the president’s controversial intervention, Monday evening’s USMNT game against Belgium had, to put it lightly, shaped up into a box-office clash.

And though the US players’ performance on the pitch might not have lived up to the high drama off it, American soccer fans certainly showed up. According to early estimates, the 4-1 defeat against Belgium was the most watched soccer telecast in US history, hauling some 40 million viewers on average across the coverage on Fox and Telemundo.

That may be a record tally in the US for the sport that much of the world calls some variant of “football” — besting the 36.2 million who tuned in to watch the team’s previous knock-out match — but it’s still peanuts in comparison to the sport that shares the same name in the States.

World cup viewers chart — Sherwood News

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Tom Jones6/22/26

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