People now spend an average of 7 hours 18 minutes online each day across devices, and 55% of internet users bought products online in the past 12 months. Internet access has risen from 46.7% of the global population to 66.2%, but security and infrastructure still lag behind demand. Phishing accounted for 83% of malware, and 37.7% of websites still lacked TLS support.
Key Takeaways
- In 2024, average daily time spent on the Internet across devices was 7 hours 18 minutes per day (DataReportal global average)
- 2.06 billion people bought online in 2023 (UNCTAD estimate cited in its digital economy monitoring)
- In 2023, there were 262 million people purchasing online on a cross-border basis (UNCTAD estimate referenced in UNCTAD digital economy figures)
- 46.7% of the world’s population used the Internet in 2012, rising to 66.2% in 2024
- Google reported that phishing accounted for 83% of all malware in 2023 in its Transparency Report coverage
- In 2023, 77% of breaches in Verizon’s DBIR involved some form of criminal activity
- The Internet Archive reported that 2024 averaged 103 million monthly active users across its web services
- In 2023, the FCC estimated 51.6 million Americans lacked access to fixed terrestrial broadband meeting the benchmark standard
- Satellite broadband coverage reached 2.7 billion people worldwide (as estimated in industry coverage maps used for ITU planning)
- The EU Digital Decade targets: 100% of households covered by gigabit connectivity by 2030
- Netcraft reported that 37.7% of websites did not support TLS in its January 2024 Web Server Survey data
- In 2024, the global average share of responses with ‘no-cache’ headers was 18.0% (HTTP Archive header usage measurement)
- In 2023, the global digital advertising market was $638.0 billion (eMarketer forecast for 2023)
- Global mobile data traffic per smartphone was 15.8 GB per month in 2024 (Ericsson Mobility Report estimate)
- NIST reported that there were 111,654,976 DNS query logs in its datasets used for Internet measurement in 2023
Internet use keeps growing alongside soaring security and cloud costs, from 7 hours daily online to major breaches and phishing.
Related reading
01 · Category
User Adoption5 stats
01
In 2024, average daily time spent on the Internet across devices was 7 hours 18 minutes per day (DataReportal global average)https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-global-overview-report
02
2.06 billion people bought online in 2023 (UNCTAD estimate cited in its digital economy monitoring)https://unctad.org/publication/united-nations-conference-trade-and-development-report-2024-digital-economy-report
03
In 2023, there were 262 million people purchasing online on a cross-border basis (UNCTAD estimate referenced in UNCTAD digital economy figures)https://unctad.org/topic/ecommerce-and-digital-economy
04
In 2024, 72.1% of Internet users watched online video at least monthly (IAB/Google measurement in 2024 State of Interactive or similar index)https://www.iab.com/insights/
05
In 2024, 55% of internet users reported buying products online at least once in the past 12 months (OECD consumer survey data summary)https://www.oecd.org/sti/consumer/e-commerce/
Interpretation
User Adoption Interpretation
In 2024, with people spending an average of 7 hours 18 minutes per day online and 72.1% watching video monthly, user adoption is clearly driven by everyday digital habits, while broader commerce is also scaling as 55% bought online at least once in the last year and 2.06 billion people purchased online in 2023.
02 · Category
Global Usage1 stats
01
46.7% of the world’s population used the Internet in 2012, rising to 66.2% in 2024https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Documents/facts/ICTFactsFigures2015.pdf
Interpretation
Global Usage Interpretation
For the Global Usage angle, Internet access surged from 46.7% of the world’s population in 2012 to 66.2% in 2024, showing a rapid widening of online connectivity over time.
03 · Category
Security & Resilience3 stats
01
Google reported that phishing accounted for 83% of all malware in 2023 in its Transparency Report coveragehttps://transparencyreport.google.com/child-safety/browse/phishing
02
In 2023, 77% of breaches in Verizon’s DBIR involved some form of criminal activityhttps://www.verizon.com/business/resources/reports/dbir/
03
The Internet Archive reported that 2024 averaged 103 million monthly active users across its web serviceshttps://archive.org/about/
Interpretation
Security & Resilience Interpretation
Security and resilience are under pressure as phishing drove 83% of all malware in 2023 and 77% of breaches in Verizon’s DBIR involved criminal activity, even as major web services like the Internet Archive still reach about 103 million monthly active users.
More related reading
04 · Category
Infrastructure & Economy11 stats
01
In 2023, the FCC estimated 51.6 million Americans lacked access to fixed terrestrial broadband meeting the benchmark standardhttps://www.fcc.gov/reports-research/reports/broadband-coverage-report
02
Satellite broadband coverage reached 2.7 billion people worldwide (as estimated in industry coverage maps used for ITU planning)https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Pages/default.aspx
03
The EU Digital Decade targets: 100% of households covered by gigabit connectivity by 2030https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/gigabit-connectivity
04
The EU Digital Decade target: 5G coverage for all populated areas by 2030https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/5g-connectivity
05
IDC forecasts global cloud infrastructure spending to reach $649 billion in 2027https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=US50025924
06
Gartner forecast worldwide end-user spending on information security products and services to reach $267.6 billion in 2024https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2024-02-05-gartner-says-worldwide-end-user-spending-on-information-security-products-and-services
07
Gartner forecast global IT spending to reach $6.8 trillion in 2027https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2024-03-20-gartner-forecast-global-it-spending-to-grow-
08
The Internet of Things (IoT) is projected to have 14.4 billion connections by 2022 (historical projection figure)https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/service-provider/visual-networking-index-vni/index.html
09
In 2024, the global CDN market size was $7.7 billion (2022-2028 forecast range reported by Fortune Business Insights)https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/cdn-market-103610
10
The global cybersecurity market size was $173.2 billion in 2023 (Fortune Business Insights cybersecurity market page)https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/cybersecurity-market-102660
11
The global AI in cybersecurity market size was $24.6 billion in 2023 (Fortune Business Insights AI in cybersecurity page)https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/ai-in-cybersecurity-market-109118
Interpretation
Infrastructure & Economy Interpretation
For the Infrastructure and Economy angle, the scale of connectivity gaps and the growth of digital infrastructure are clear, with 51.6 million Americans still lacking benchmark fixed terrestrial broadband in 2023 alongside a global push from 2.7 billion people covered by satellite broadband to rising cloud and security spend expected to reach $649 billion by 2027 and $267.6 billion in 2024 respectively.
05 · Category
Industry Trends4 stats
01
Netcraft reported that 37.7% of websites did not support TLS in its January 2024 Web Server Survey datahttps://news.netcraft.com/archives/2024/01/17/january-2024-web-server-survey/
02
In 2024, the global average share of responses with ‘no-cache’ headers was 18.0% (HTTP Archive header usage measurement)https://httparchive.org/reports/state-of-the-web
03
In 2023, the global digital advertising market was $638.0 billion (eMarketer forecast for 2023)https://www.emarketer.com/content/worldwide-digital-ad-spending-2023
04
In 2023, business email compromise (BEC) accounted for 27% of reported cyber incidents in the Proofpoint datasethttps://www.proofpoint.com/us/resources/threat-reports
Interpretation
Industry Trends Interpretation
Industry Trends show that security and trust gaps remain significant as 37.7% of websites lacked TLS support in Netcraft’s January 2024 survey and BEC made up 27% of reported cyber incidents in Proofpoint’s 2023 dataset.
06 · Category
Infrastructure & Cost3 stats
01
Global mobile data traffic per smartphone was 15.8 GB per month in 2024 (Ericsson Mobility Report estimate)https://www.ericsson.com/en/reports-and-papers/mobility-report
02
NIST reported that there were 111,654,976 DNS query logs in its datasets used for Internet measurement in 2023https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/ir/2024/NIST.IR.8499.pdf
03
In 2023, global IPv6 adoption reached 46.1% (share of global unique IP addresses supporting IPv6, per APNIC/RIPE measurement summary)https://stats.apnic.net/ipv6
Interpretation
Infrastructure & Cost Interpretation
In 2024 the average smartphone used 15.8 GB of mobile data per month, while 2023 saw DNS logging at 111,654,976 queries and IPv6 adoption rising to 46.1%, suggesting infrastructure is being stressed by growing traffic but increasingly supported by more modern addressing.
report visual · Key figures
Internet use keeps rising
The share of the world’s population using the Internet increased from 2012 to 2024.
46.7%
46.7% of the world’s population used the Internet in 2012, rising to 66.2% in 2024
2024
In 2024, average daily time spent on the Internet across devices was 7 hours 18 minutes per day (DataReportal global ave
2.06
2.06 billion people bought online in 2023 (UNCTAD estimate cited in its digital economy monitoring)
source-verifieditu.int · datareportal.com · unctad.org2024
Reference
Cite This Report
This report is designed to be cited. We maintain stable URLs and versioned verification dates. Copy the format appropriate for your publication below.
APA
Stefan Wendt. (2026, February 13). Internet Statistics. Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/internet-statistics
MLA
Stefan Wendt. "Internet Statistics." Gitnux, 13 Feb 2026, https://gitnux.org/internet-statistics.
Chicago
Stefan Wendt. 2026. "Internet Statistics." Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/internet-statistics.
Sources & references
27 datasets cited across this report
+6 additional datasets cited (not shown individually)