World now has more than 6bn Internet users, but digital divide remains huge
The world has never been more connected, but not everyone is surfing at the same speed. A new report from the International Telecommunication Union shows that the number of Internet users has passed the 6 billion mark. Around 240 million new users came online in 2025, yet millions of others are still completely left behind.
The report sketched two worlds sharing the same Internet. While one half streams videos seamlessly, shops online and does everything with a single click, another part of the world struggles to get connected at all.
Some 2.2 billion people still have no access to the Internet today. That group is concentrated mainly in low- and middle-income countries, where digital infrastructure and training are far from guaranteed. According to the organisation, investments in better networks, affordable services and digital skills training are urgently needed to tackle this inequality.
Mobile technology is growing at breakneck speed – but here too, the story is far from even. Worldwide there are already 3 billion 5G subscriptions, yet actual coverage varies enormously depending on where you live.
In wealthier countries, 5G networks are taken for granted, while low-income countries often have barely any coverage at all. That gap is also visible in everyday data use: users in high-income regions consume far more mobile data than people in poorer countries.
Even for the 6 billion people who are online, simply ‘having Internet’ is not the same as truly being digitally included.
Although the cost of mobile internet has fallen, mobile broadband is still too expensive for many people in low- and middle-income countries. On top of that, the vast majority of Internet users only master basic digital skills – think sending e-mails or opening a document, but not creating content or protecting yourself online. Those more advanced skills are on the rise, but growing at a strikingly slow pace.
The organisation stresses that reliable data is crucial for shaping policies on digital inclusion. Only then can societies move step by step towards universal connectivity.
The report also exposed a few more sore points: internet access is closely linked to income, gender and where you live.
Wealthy countries, unsurprisingly, are online more than low-income countries, but the same pattern appears within countries as well. Men still have Internet access more often than women, city dwellers are better connected than people in rural areas, and young people are clearly more active online than older generations.
The result? Those who are economically, geographically or socially vulnerable also run the greatest risk of being left behind in the digital world.
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