A facebook sponsored study has shown the number of internet users globally has grown significantly to 3.2 billion by the end of 2015.
According to Facebook’s second annual “State of Connectivity” report, released late Sunday, 200 million people gained Internet access in 2015, due to “more affordable data and rising global incomes.”
The report however said that 4.1billion people in the world still could not get online and need help to gain access to the Internet and the economic opportunities it enables.
“The developed world is largely online, but the developing world is a long way behind,” the report said.
“Urban areas are connected, many rural areas are not. The less money you have, the less likely you are to be online.
In many countries, women use the Internet far less than men. And even if the entire world lived within range of the necessary infrastructure, nearly a billion people remain illiterate or otherwise unable to benefit from online content.”
The report said improving access “is a major challenge that will require the cooperation of many stakeholders through innovation and investment.”
If there’s no significant change to current trends, more than three billion people will remain offline by 2020, nearly all in developing countries, the report said.
