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US Ranks 19th in Number of Citizens Online
NEW YORK -- More than half the people in the world will have Internet access within three years, says this year’s edition of the State of Broadband Report, issued by the Broadband Commission for Digital Development. Mobile broadband over smartphones and tablets has become the fastest-growing technology in history.
The report, released Tuesday at the 10th meeting of the Broadband Commission, shows that more than 40% of the world's people are already online with the number of Internet users rising from 2.3 billion in 2013 to 2.9 billion by the end of this year.
The Republic of Korea continues to have the world's highest household broadband penetration at more than 98%, up from 97% last year. Monaco surpassed last year's champion, Switzerland, as the world leader in fixed broadband penetration, at more than 44% of its population. Four economies -- Monaco, Switzerland, Denmark and The Netherlands -- report penetration exceeds 40%, where only Switzerland could make that claim in 2013.
The United States ranks 19th globally in terms of number of people online, ahead of other countries that belong to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development such as Germany, 20th, and Australia, 21st, but behind the United Kingdom, 12th, Japan, 15th, and Canada, 16th. The United States has slid from 20th to 24th place for fixed broadband subscriptions per capita, just behind Japan but ahead of Macao and Estonia.
In total, 77 countries can claim more than half of their populations are online, up from 70 in 2013. The top-10 countries for Internet use are all in Europe, with Iceland ranked first in the world with 96.5% of people online. The lowest levels of Internet access are mostly in sub-Saharan Africa.
The State of Broadband 2014 is the third edition of the commission's annual report. Released annually in September, it is the only report that features country-by-country rankings based on access and affordability for more than 160 economies worldwide.
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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