100+ Internet Statistics & Trends [2024 Update]

How many people will use the internet in 2024? On January 5, 2024, there were 5.3 billion Internet users worldwide. To illustrate the massive increase in internet usage, 3.42 billion users were recorded at the end of 2016.

The average global internet user spends seven hours online every day. That’s an increase of 17 minutes compared to this time last year.

The number of global internet users yearly has increased by 4% or +192 million.

Asia continues the trend of having the largest number of internet users globally, making up 53.6% of the internet world. Runners-up include Europe (13.7%), Africa (11.9%), and Latin America/Caribbean (9.9%).

Interestingly, North America makes up only 6.4% of all internet users worldwide.

China has the biggest number of active internet users in Asia: 1,010,740,000. Right behind it is India, with 833,710,000 users. The next closest countries include the United States, with more than 312,320,000 (This number has exceeded the predicted amount of 307.34 million internet users), and Russia, with 124,630,000 internet users.

As of January 1, 2024, 339,996,563 people live in the United States. Nearly three times that number of people are using the internet in China, which has a population of 1,425,671,352.

North America has the highest penetration rate, with 93.4% of its people using the internet. This figure is followed by Europe (89.6%), Latin America/Caribbean (81.8%), the Middle East (78.9%), and Australia/Oceania (71.5%).

How many websites are there in 2024? As of January 2024, over 1.13 billion websites were on the internet. Published on August 6, 1991, info.cern.ch was the first-ever website on the internet.

On December 31, 2023, the world had an average internet penetration rate of 65.7% (as compared to 35% in 2013).

North Korea remains the country with the least amount of internet users, sitting at almost 0%. 

Google now processes 8.5 billion search queries every day worldwide. The average internet user conducts between 3 and 4 Google searches on a daily basis.

When Google launched in September 1998, it processed approximately 10,000 search queries daily.

Google Chrome enjoys a whopping 65.86% of the global web browser market. Other popular internet browsers rank as follows – Safari (18.7%), Firefox (3.04%), Edge (4.44%), Samsung Internet (2.68%), and Opera (2.28%).

63.1% of the world’s population used the internet. In 1995, less than 1% of the world’s population had an internet connection.

More people access the internet via mobile devices than they do via desktop computers. As of January 2024, mobile devices generated 55% of global website traffic.

In the first half of 2023, 42% of all internet traffic was automated traffic (27.7% came from bad bots, and 25% was made up of good bots). Humans accounted for the remaining 36%.

How many domain names are there in 2024? At the end of the fourth quarter of 2022, 350.5 million domain name registrations across all top-level domains, a decrease of 0.4%, compared to the second quarter of 2022. However, domain name registrations have increased by 13.2 million or 3.9% since last year.

.com and .net had a combined total of 174.2 million domain name registrations at the end of the 3rd of 2023, a decrease of 0.2 million domain name registrations, or 0.1%, compared to the second quarter of 2023.

The most popular language on the internet is English. 25.9% of the internet is in English, 19.4% is in Chinese, and 8% is in Spanish.

Experts predict that $442.6 billion dollars will be spent on online advertising globally in 2024.

Search advertising spending was projected to amount to around $303.6 billion in 2024.

Out of $220.93 billion spent on online media advertising in the US in 2023, $116.50 billion was expected to be spent on search ads.

Google was expected to have control of nearly 28.6% of global digital ad spending in 2024.

12.60% of all Google search ad clicks were made via mobile devices.

In Q4 2023, Meta’s (formerly Facebook) total advertising revenue was $153.8 billion. Facebook earns more than 97.5% of its total revenue from advertising.

The average search ad spending per internet user was projected to reach $50.94.

TikTok is expected to triple its ad revenue in 2024 to hit $18.5 billion dollars.

Snapchat has built a self-serve mobile advertising platform where businesses of all sizes can create ads in various formats. This matters because, in Q3 2023, 406 million people used the app daily on average.

How many blog posts get published every day in 2024? According to the latest data, 7.5 million blog posts are published daily.

How many blogs are there? As of January 2024, nearly 600 million blogs were hosted on WordPress, Wix, Weebly, and Google’s Blogger.

WordPress reigns supreme as the Internet’s most popular CMS and blogging platform. WordPress powers 43.2% of all websites on the Internet. WordPress powers 38% of the top 10,000 websites on the Web.

Longform content of 3000+ words gets three times more traffic than articles of average length (901-1200 words).

Websites with blogs generate 55% more traffic, and blog titles containing 6-13 words get the most attention.

Food is the most profitable blogging niche, with the highest median income of $9,169.

Blogging is the second most popular content marketing channel (after social media) and accounts for 36% of all online marketing.

81% of consumers trust information found on blogs. In fact, 61% of U.S. online consumers have made a purchase based on recommendations from a blog.

B2B brands are more likely to use blogs, case studies, whitepapers, and interviews as part of their marketing strategy.

75% of people never scroll past the first page of search results, and between 70-80% of people ignore Google ads.

Google processes 8.5 billion search queries every day worldwide. The average internet user conducts between 3 and 4 Google searches on a daily basis.

83% of marketers believe it’s more effective to create higher quality content less often.

The average word count of high-ranking content on Google is about 1,447 words, while a post must contain over 300 words to have a chance of ranking well.

How many domain names are there in 2024? At the end of the third quarter of 2023, 359.3 million domain name registrations across all top-level domains, a decrease of 2.4%, compared to the third quarter of 2022. However, domain name registrations have increased by 8.5 million.

.com and .net had a combined total of 174.2 million domain name registrations at the end of the 3rd of 2023, a decrease of 0.2 million domain name registrations, or 0.1%, compared to the second quarter of 2023.

The top 5 most expensive publicly reported domain names ever sold are:

Cars.com ($872 million).
CarInsurance.com ($49.7 million)
Insurance.com ($35.6 million)
VacationRentals.com ($35 million)
Privatejet.com ($30.18 million)

.com is still the most popular domain extension. As of Q4 2023, there were 161.3 million .com domain name registrations.

New generic top-level domains (ngTLD) are increasing in popularity. In 2023, the favorite was .xyz, with 11.8 million domain name registrations, followed by .online at 8.5%.

The five most popular domain name extensions are currently .com (53.3%), .ca (11%), .org (4.4%), .ru (4.3%), and .net (3.1%).

Google.com, YouTube.com, Facebook.com, Twitter.com, and Instagram.com are the most popular domain names of 2024.

The most popular TLDs for venture capital-backed startups are .com, .co, .io, .ai

GoDaddy is the largest domain name registrar, with over 76.6 million domain names, followed by NameCheap with 16.5 million domain names.

How many websites are there in 2024? On January 1, 2024, over 1.98 billion websites were on the internet, up from 1.9 billion in January 2023.

The world’s first website was published on August 6, 1991, by British physicist Tim Berners-Lee.

The most popular content management systems (CMSs) include WordPress, Shopify, Wix, and Squarespace, with WordPress having a market share of around 62.9%

WordPress, the open-source content management system, powers 42.7% of all websites on the internet.

In December 2023, 32.8% of all websites on the internet didn’t use a content management system.

62.6% of all websites today are hosted on either Apache or Nginx, both free-to-use open-source web servers.

The most prominent sites using WordPress in 2024 are Time Magazine, Disney, Sony Music, TechCrunch, Facebook, and Vogue.

In 2024, WP Engine, Hostinger, SiteGround, Bluehost, (SiteGround versus Bluehost is here), and GreenGeeks are expected to be the best hosting providers on the market.

The average website loading speed is 10.3 seconds, and Amazon.com would lose $1.6 billion per year if its website slowed down by 0.1 seconds or more. Walmart enjoyed a 1% increase in revenue for every 100ms increase in download speed.

53% of consumers will leave a page that takes longer than three seconds to load. And 64% of consumers who are dissatisfied with site performance say they’ll go elsewhere next time.

Squarespace, Wix, and Shopify are the most popular website builders to create a site with. However, according to builtwith.com, sites created by a website builder only make up 5.6% of the top 1 million sites on the internet.

For a site making $100,000 per day, a one-second-page delay could cost $2.5 million in lost sales annually.

92% of global search volume comes from Google, and users click the first search result 39.6% of the time.

eCommerce sales reached $2.29 trillion in 2017 and were expected to reach $6.9 trillion in 2024. Experts predict this number will rise to $8.1 trillion in 2026.

While it’s hard to quantify precisely, E-commerce sales make up over 17% of total global retail sales. A figure that has more than doubled in the past decade.

2.14 billion of the world’s population is expected to buy online in 2024. This is an increase of over 48% since 2014.

In 2021, digital and mobile wallets made up 49% of all online payments, while credit cards accounted for 21%. Interestingly, North Americans favor credit cards (31%) over digital/mobile wallets (29%).

This year, online grocery shopping will have a global value of $354.28 billion. By 2030 this is expected to rise to an eye-watering $2,158.53 billion.

Since the Coronavirus pandemic started in 2020, 6% of all Canadian consumers shopped online for the very first time. France also has 6%. The UK, New Zealand, Australia, and India were 5%, while the US was 3%.

One in four people will continue to shop online at least once a week, and yet only 28% of US small businesses are selling their products online.

Shoppers look online first on over 60% of shopping occasions. And 87% of shoppers say getting a good deal is important to them.

28% of online shoppers will abandon their cart if the shipping costs are too high.

Only 4% of US-based Christmas holiday shoppers did not use any digital channels to buy anything in 2021. That means 96% of all US shoppers bought online.

According to Google Consumer Insights, shoppers make buying decisions based on unboxing videos, home improvement blogs, and written recipes.

67% of YouTube watchers have made a purchase as a result of viewing sponsored content.

9 out of 10 consumers say that free shipping is an incentive to buy online. Orders that include free shipping are, on average, 30% higher in value.

61% of consumers are likely to abandon their cart or cancel their purchase if they do not receive free shipping. 93% of online buyers will buy more if it means getting free shipping.

Shopping on mobile devices is projected to exceed $430 billion and is expected to rise to $710 billion in 2025.

In 2024, Shopify estimates that the global value of online abandoned carts was $18 billion.

The top reason for abandoned shopping carts is because of negative reviews, followed by a lack of return policy and then slow website loading rates.

The total time people spend browsing shopping apps worldwide topped 100 billion hours.

49% of mobile users use their devices to compare the pricing of the products or services before choosing to buy. 30% use their mobiles to find more information on a product, and 29% seek items on sale.

The top reasons for cart abandonment include: shipping costs too high, not ready to purchase, not qualifying for free shipping, shipping costs shown too late in the purchase process, and websites loading too slowly.

Shopify powers over 4.8 million online sellers. At the end of the third quarter of 2023, Shopify’s cumulative GMV (gross merchandise volume) was $56.2 billion. Shopify is the third-largest online retailer in the United States, after Amazon and eBay.

2023 Black Friday saw a record-breaking $9.8 billion in sales, which is a 7.5% increase from 2022. “But now pay later” payment options increased by 78% during the sale period.

58.2% of shoppers prefer to use big box stores or large-scale retailers for their shopping. However, 31.9% will buy directly from well-known E-commerce brands, while only 9.9% will choose a niche or independent retailer.

As of June 2022, Amazon accounted for 37.8% of all US online sales. Walmart, the next highest, achieved 6.3%. Amazon revenue for the quarter ending September 30, 2023, was $143.083 billion, a 12.57% increase year-over-year.

33.4% of US shoppers prefer shopping online to going in-store. The same is true for 36.1% of UK shoppers and 26.5% of Australians.

Shoppers want “buy now, pay later” (BNPL) payment solutions. In 2022 it is estimated that there will be 360 million people worldwide currently using BNPL, and this figure is predicted to rise to 900 million in 2027.

According to Pingdom, the fastest website to date is bhphotovideo.com, followed by hm.com and bestbuy.com, all of which have page loading speeds of less than 0.5 seconds.

About 46% of all emails are opened on mobile devices. Personalized emails have an average open rate of 18.8% compared with non-personalized at 5.7%.

Over 84% of Americans access the internet via mobile phones, and 51% of global online traffic is via a mobile device.

Mobile traffic is predicted to increase by 25% by 2025. The increase is largely due to an increase in video content being viewed and greater access to streaming services.

67% of mobile phone users state that pages and links that are too small and not optimized for mobile screens are a barrier to online shopping.

92.1% of all internet users own a mobile phone.

People spend 90% of their mobile media time on apps and the other 10% on websites. 3.8 trillion hours were spent using apps on mobile devices in 2023.

Mobile-friendly website design was a top marketing trend for 2023, and businesses are investing more in short-form video content for their mobile marketing strategy.

Americans check their phones at least 96 times daily or once every ten minutes. And the average American uses their phone for at least five hours and 24 minutes daily.

When using apps, 37. 83% of mobile users are willing to share their data for a more personalized experience

Consumers can recall an in-app mobile ad 47% of the time and clickthrough rates are 34% better than when ads are placed natively.

As of December 2023, there are 4.72 billion active social media users around the globe, which equates to 59.3% of the population.

Social media is the number one marketing channel for businesses in 2024, with videos being the top content marketing media format for the third year running.

How-to articles are one of the most shared types of content on social media. How To posts earned 18.42% of shares on platforms like Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram.

The average attention span in 2000 was 12 seconds. This year, the average attention span is just 8 seconds. That’s less than the 9-second attention span of your average goldfish.

The most popular social media platform is still Facebook. Followed by YouTube, Whatsapp, Instagram, and WeChat. TikTok is currently placed 6th, but it was the world’s fastest-growing platform in 2022.

Meta’s Twitter rival Threads broke all records when it launched, and got 150 million downloads within its first week.

Facebook currently has 2.98 billion monthly active users.

People aged 65 and over are Facebook’s fastest-growing user base demographic.

93% of social media marketers use Facebook Ads, and the highest volume of traffic on Facebook tends to be Wednesday and Thursday, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Top brands on Instagram are seeing a per-follower engagement rate of 4.21%, which is 58 times higher than on Facebook and 120 times higher than on Twitter.

Twitter currently has 450 million monthly active users. When Elon Musk took over the platform, its user base increased by 2% more than usual.

As of October 2023, Twitter was most popular in the US, followed by Japan, India, Brazil, the UK, and Indonesia.

Instagram will have 1.44 billion users in 2024. This number surpassed the 2023 prediction of 1.35 billion.

TikTok has been downloaded 3 billion times and was on of the most downloaded apps last year.

The average TikTok user opens the app 19 times per day. Kids are spending up to 75 minutes per day on the app.

The most popular messaging apps (in order of popularity) are Whatsapp, WeChat, Facebook Messenger, QQ, Snapchat, and Telegram.

The latest research shows that as of January 2024, Snapchat had 406 million daily active users across the globe.

Users aged between 18 to 24 are Snapchat’s largest advertising audience, and over 5 billion Snapchats are created each day on average.

Over 500 million people interact with Instagram Stories every day.

Over 1 billion messages are exchanged between brands and users each month, with 33% of people saying they would rather contact a business through messaging rather than a phone call.

88% of brands have a dedicated influencer marketing budget, and last year, 68% of marketers worked with influencers and will spend between 50k – 500k per year.

Cybercrime damages worldwide are expected to cost $8 trillion annually in 2024, up from $6 trillion just a year before.

73% of cyber attacks are carried out for economic reasons.

30,000 websites are targeted and attacked every day.

One in two US-based internet users had their accounts breached in 2021, while as of December 2023, the UK has the highest number of cybercrime victims, with 4,783 per million internet users affected.

Ransom attacks occur every 11 seconds, and in 2023, they will cost up to $20 billion.

Smart devices such as home assistance tech, wearable tech, and other “Internet of Things” devices are prime targets for cybercriminals since they do not feature tight security.

The average amount demanded after a ransomware attack is $1,077.

It is estimated that there is a victim of a cybercrime every 37 seconds. In 2021, 1 in 5 internet users had their emails leaked online,

1 in every 131 emails contains malware

46% of ransomware operators impersonate authority figures like the FBI, police, and government officials. 82% lock the victim’s computer without encrypting files.

Victims report that 42% of ransomware attackers ask for a prepaid voucher of some kind.

The most common cybersecurity crimes are phishing scams, internet fraud, intellectual property infringement, identity theft, harassment, and cyberstalking.

The largest-ever data breach happened in 2013 when 3 billion Yahoo users’ phone numbers, birth dates, and security questions were hacked.

35% of ransomware attacks arrive by email, while 15 billion spam emails are sent every single day.

Data breaches have cost businesses an average of $4.35 million. This is an increase from $4.24 million in 2021.

Investment fraud has been found to be the most costly form of cybercrime, with each victim losing an average of $70,811.

51% of small businesses have no cybersecurity in place and only 17% of small businesses encrypt their data.

Over 43% of cybercrime attacks target small businesses, and 37% of companies affected by ransomware have less than 100 employees.