According to ITU's latest annual "State of Broadband" report, over half of the world (3.9 billion people, or 53%) are still not connected to the internet.
ITU's goal, set in 2010, of having 60% connectivity by 2020 means another 1.2 billion people will have to be brought online in the next four years.
The glass-almost-half-full view is that 3.5 billion people will be connected by the end of this year, up from 3.2 billion in 2015. Projected across the next four years, that 300 million year-to-year increase would get ITU to its goal.
Iceland continues to have the highest percentage of internet use at 98.2%, while Luxembourg at 97.3% is in second place and Andorra at 97% is in third. The U.S. was 40th at 74.55%
Monaco is the leader in fixed broadband at over 47 subscriptions per 100 inhabitants. The U.S. is in 22nd place with 31.53 per hundred.
Finland is the leader in mobile broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants at 144.05. The U.S. is 13th at 109.23.
And a statistic that should warm the hearts of broadband plan architects former FCC chair Julius Genachowski and U.S. broadband plan czar Blair Levin, countries with such plans have increased from 102 in 2010 to 151 in 2016.
To read the entire report, go here.
(Photo via Frankie Leon's Flickr. Image taken on July 22, 2016 and used per Creative Commons 2.0 license. The photo was cropped to fit 3x4 aspect ratio.)
