Director of the ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau Brahima Sanou announced the rating of "ICT Facts and Figures". He noted that over the past two and a half decades, ITU has contributed to the unprecedented development of ICTs worldwide and the wider transformation they have brought to society. Our new data show that young people are at the forefront of today’s digital economy with 70 per cent of the world’s youth being online.

70% of the world's youth are online

In 104 countries, more than 80% of the youth population are online. In developed countries, 94% of young people aged 15-24 use the Internet compared with 67% in developing countries and only 30% in Least Developed Countries (LDCs). Out of the 830 million young people who are online, 320 million (39%) are in China and India. Nearly 9 out of 10 young individuals not using the Internet live in Africa or Asia and the Pacific.

Proportion of individuals using the Internet, by age, 2017

The proportion of young people aged 15-24 using the Internet (71%) is significantly higher than the proportion of the total population using the Internet (48%).Young people represent almost one-fourth of the total number of individuals using the Internet worldwide. In LDCs, 35% of the individuals using the Internet are young people aged 15-24, compared with 13% in developed countries and 23% globally.

Proportion of households with Internet access, 2017

In developed countries, the proportion of households with Internet access at home is twice as high as in developing countries. Only 15% of households in LDCs have Internet access at home. In these countries, many Internet users are accessing the Internet from work, schools and universities or from other shared public connections outside the home.

Proportion of individuals using the Internet, by gender, 2017

The proportion of men using the Internet is higher than the proportion of women using the Internet in two-thirds of countries worldwide. There is a strong link between gender parity in the enrollment ratio in tertiary education and gender parity in Internet use. The only region where a higher percentage of women than men are using the Internet is the Americas, where countries also score highly on gender parity in tertiary education.The proportion of women using the Internet is 12% lower than the proportion of men using the Internet worldwide. While the gender gap has narrowed in most regions since 2013, it has widened in Africa. In Africa, the proportion of women using the Internet is 25% lower than the proportion of men using the Internet. In LDCs, only one out of seven women is using the Internet compared with one out of five men.