60+ Internet Usage Statistics and Latest Trends for 2023

Are you curious about internet usage statistics?

When you learn how people around the world use the internet, it can help you understand what your business’s online presence should look like and how users will interact with your website.

In this article, we’ll share the latest internet usage statistics and trends that all business owners and marketers should know.

Key Internet Statistics and Trends (2023)

We’ve split up these internet statistics into several different categories. You can use the table of contents below to jump to the internet stats you’re most interested in.

General Internet Usage Statistics

• As of April 2022, there were five billion internet users worldwide, which is 63% of the global population. 
• China, India, and the United States rank ahead of all other countries in terms of internet users. As of February 2022, China had more than a billion internet users, and India had approximately 658 million online users.
• The global internet penetration rate is 62.5%. 
• Northern Europe ranks first with a 98% internet penetration rate among the population. 
• The countries with the highest internet penetration rate worldwide were the UAE, Denmark, and Ireland. 
• From the year 2000 to 2022, usage of the internet increased by 1,355%.
• The Middle East has seen a 6,141% growth in internet usage since 2000. 
• There are still over 2.7 billion people in the world with no internet access.
• 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.
• 32% of internet users worldwide are 25 to 34 years old.

Internet usage increased by a whopping 1,355% from the year 2000 to 2022. Now, there are 5 billion internet users worldwide, which is 63% of the global population.

With so many internet users on the planet today, it’s important that every business has a website. Otherwise, you’re missing out on a ton of people who could discover you online.

If you haven’t created a website yet, simply follow our tutorial on how to make a WordPress website for step by step instructions. Or, you can read this guide on how to start an online store.

Web Search Statistics

• The Chrome web browser is used by 65.52% of internet users worldwide. Chrome is followed by Safari, which is used by 18.78% of internet users in the world. Microsoft Edge is the 3rd most popular browser at 4.3%, and Firefox is 4th with 3.16%. 
• The three most popular websites on the internet are Google.com, YouTube.com, and Tmall.com, which is a Chinese online retail platform. 
• The most popular web search engine is Google, with 92.7% of the market share. Google is followed by Bing, which has only 2.8% of the market share. 
• The most searched words on Google USA in 2022 were weather, Facebook, and YouTube. Other search words in the top 10 were Amazon, NBA, Gmail, NFL, and Google Translate. 
• The Google Search Index contains hundreds of billions of pages that add up to over 100,000,000 gigabytes in size. 
• Almost 30% of global web traffic is generated via online search usage. 
• There are approximately 106,083 Google searches made every 1 second. 
• According to a Moz survey, 84% of respondents use Google 3 times a day or more. 

Search engines like Google play an important role in how users find and navigate to different websites. This is proven by the fact that 30% of global web traffic is generated via an online search.

In order for your website to be discovered by users in search engine results, it needs to be properly optimized for SEO.

Search engine optimization might seem complicated, especially for beginners, but it doesn’t have to be. See this guide on WordPress SEO to get actionable tips for improving your SEO and increasing organic traffic.

You can also follow this tutorial on how to set up All in One SEO for WordPress.

All in One SEO, the best WordPress SEO plugin, will help you set up the proper SEO foundations for your site in minutes. Plus, the SEO audit feature will analyze your entire website to detect any critical errors that could be harming your rankings. Then, provide you with easy recommendations for improvement.

Mobile Internet Usage Statistics

• Over 90% of the global internet population uses a mobile device to go online. 
• In 2021, internet users worldwide spent over 54.7% of their time browsing the internet via mobile phones. This is an increase of 5% compared to 2020, when global internet users spent almost 51% of their online time accessing the internet via mobile devices. 
• Mobile internet traffic accounts for almost 55% of total web traffic. In mobile-first markets such as Asia and Africa, mobile connections account for an even larger share of webpage views. 
• Mobile ownership and internet usage are forecast to keep growing in the future. This is largely due to mobile technologies becoming more affordable and readily available.
• Samsung has 28.76% of the mobile vendor market share worldwide. Apple is in a close second with 27.83% of the worldwide market. 
• In 2021, the number of cities with access to 5G reached 1.662 worldwide, which is an increase of more than 20% over the course of the year. 
• The top three countries with the most extensive 5G in 2022 were China, South Korea, and the United States. 
• TikTok was the most downloaded app globally in 2021, with 656 million downloads. 

In the not-so-distant past, you could only access the internet from a desktop computer. But now, it’s clear to see from these statistics that people are loving being able to access the internet on the go.

Over 90% of the global internet population uses a mobile device to go online, and mobile internet traffic accounts for almost 55% of total web traffic.

Because of this, it’s important that your website looks great and is equally functional on mobile phones and tablets as it is on desktops.

See our recommendations for the best responsive WordPress themes. These themes will automatically adjust to the users’ screen size so you can provide the best experience for mobile users.

Website and Domain Statistics 

• There are over 1.5 billion websites on the internet today. But, less than 200 million are active. 
• There are currently 370.7 million registered domain names in the world. 
• China has the highest number of registered domains, with over 8.8 million domain names accounting for 33.80% of the global share. 
• The US has only 3.6 million domains registered, which amounts to 14.04% of the global share.
• The most common domain name extensions are .com, .net, .org, .co, .us. 
• More than 43% of all websites are using WordPress as their content management system. 
• WordPress holds nearly 65% of the global CMS market share. 
• 38% of the top 10,000 websites are powered by WordPress.
• Every day, more than 1000 new WordPress sites join the top 10 million websites tracked by W3Techs.com.

It’s easier than ever to create a website on the world wide web today. That might be why there are over 1.5 billion websites on the internet. But, less than 200 million of those are active.

If you have an inactive website, to get it up and running, all you need is web hosting and a domain name.

To find the right options for your needs, you can check out our recommendations for the best web hosting services and the best domain name registrars on the market.

At WPBeginner, we always recommend choosing Bluehost. It’s one of the most reliable hosting companies in the world, and they’re officially by WordPress, the best website builder software.

Plus, WPBeginner users can get a free domain name, free SSL certificate, and a discount on web hosting!

Online Shopping Statistics 

• In the United States alone, we’re expecting to have 300 million online shoppers in 2023. That’s 91% of the country’s current population. 
• The countries with the leading average eCommerce revenue per shoppers are: USA ($1,804), UK ($1,629), and Sweden ($1,446). 
• 72% of online shoppers are women, while 68% are men.
• Millennials aged 25-34 are the largest group of online shoppers in the US. 
• 59% of shoppers say they do research online before they buy in order to make the best possible choice.
• 74% of in-store shoppers searched online before going to the physical location. They said they searched for information like the closest store near them, in-stock items, business hours, directions, and contact information. 
• 67% of users admit to window shopping for fun on their smartphones.
• 77% of these digital window shoppers make impulse purchases. If they don’t purchase right away, 70% of them will come back and make a purchase from their device within the first hour of seeing the product.

In 2023, there are expected to be 300 million online shoppers in the United States alone. That’s 91% of the country’s current population!

But, even with so many online shoppers, it can be hard to generate traffic and sales for your online store because there’s so much competition.

Since 59% of shoppers say they do research online before buying something, it’s vital that your eCommerce website shows up in search engine results if you want to compete with the big guys. You can read our ultimate WooCommerce SEO guide for easy tips.

You can also check out our list of the best WooCommerce plugins for your store. These plugins can help you reduce cart abandonment, create custom checkout pages, boost affiliate sales, increase upsells, and much more.

Social Media and Email Usage Statistics

• Of the five billion internet users worldwide, 4.65 billion, or over 93%, are social media users. 
• Over 230 billion tweets were tweeted on Twitter in 2022. 
• Nearly 27 billion photos were uploaded on Instagram in 2022. 
• Over 2 trillion videos were viewed on YouTube in 2022. 
• There are over 4.1 billion email accounts registered by internet users worldwide, that’s 107 million more than in 2019. This number is expected to grow by over 4.3 billion by the end of 2023.
• Nearly 75 trillion emails were sent in 2022. 
• 61% of consumers prefer to be contacted by brands through email. 
• 99% of email users check their email every day, with some checking as much as 20 times a day. 
• 58% of users check their email before they check out social media or the news.
• 40% of people 18 years old and under will always open an email on their mobile device first.

Social media and email are some of the most popular activities online, according to these internet statistics: There are 4.65 billion social media users worldwide, and 4.1 billion registered email accounts globally.

Instead of waiting for your target audience to visit your website, you should reach out to them on social media platforms and via email. This will make it easier to drive traffic to your site and increase sales.

You can check out our social media cheat sheet for tips on how to set up your social media profiles correctly.

Then, follow this step by step tutorial on how to create an email newsletter.

Internet of Things (IoT) Statistics 

• The estimated number of IoT devices will jump to 125 billion by 2030.
• The smart home (IoT) market is projected to grow to $53.45 billion.
• In 2021, about 41.9% of US households owned a smart home device. This is predicted to increase to 48.4% by 2025.
• Globally, an estimated 127 new devices connect to the Internet every second.
• The wearable devices market is expected to be worth $1.1 billion.
• Approximately 70% of new vehicles worldwide will be internet-connected by 2023.
• There will be more than 3 internet-connected devices for every human on the planet by 2023.

The Internet of Things, or IoT, refers to the many physical objects that have been embedded with sensors and software and are now connected to the internet.

According to these internet statistics, there will be more than 3 internet-connected devices for every human on the planet by 2023, and the estimated number of IoT devices will jump to 125 billion by 2030.

So, expect to see more smart refrigerators, locks, doorbells, watches, vehicles, and many other devices, in the near future.

List of Sources

Statista, OptinMonster, BroadbandSearch, Nameboy, InternetWorldStats, Internet Live Stats, StatCounter, Radicati, Amazon, SimilarWeb, Google, Mobile Magazine, Business of Apps, IHS Markit, McKinsey, Moz, WPBeginner, eMarketer, Cisco

That’s a wrap. We hope these internet usage statistics will provide you with valuable insights for growing your online business. You might also want to check out our ultimate list of blogging statistics, or see our roundup of web design industry stats and trends.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.