Research : World Internet Population

In 2012 the number of Internet users worldwide reached 2.27 billion, almost exactly twice what it was in 5 years ago, 1.15 billion. We all know the Internet is big, but this kind of growth really puts things into perspective.The Internet population has been swelling rapidly since the arrival of the World Wide Web (which rests firmly on top of the foundation provided by the Internet). It’s human nature to get used to changes, so most of us have a tendency to forget how rapidly the world has changed, and keeps changing.

One of the big take-aways from this chart is that Asia not only has the largest Internet population, but that it is also growing the fastest by quite some margin.
Here is how the number of Internet users has changed per world region in the past 5 years:

• Africa has gone from 34 million to 140 million, a 317% increase.

• Asia has gone from 418 million to over 1 billion, a 143% increase.

• Europe has gone from 322 million to 501 million, a 56% increase.

• The Middle East has gone from 20 to 77 million, a 294% increase.

• North America has gone from 233 to 273 million, a 17% increase.

• Latin America (South & Central America) has gone from 110 to 236 million, a 114% increase.

• Oceania (including Australia) has gone from 19 to 24 million, a 27% increase.

  source :

http://royal.pingdom.com/2012/04/19/world-internet-population-has-doubled-in-the-last-5-years/