According to the latest data there are over 1.7 billion individuals around the world have access to the internet. This is just over 25% of the entire population. And almost 75% of people in North America are online. When you think about those numbers it’s pretty amazing how the adoption of this medium has penetrated into our everyday lives. Although it’s hard to say exactly who created the internet we do know that Tim Berners-Lee first created what we know a s the World Wide Web (WWW) while working at CERN back in 1990. When most people think of the internet the World Wide Web is really what they think about, although it is so much more now.
An interactive map from the BBC allows users to visualize network usage around the world for ten years beginning in 1998. If you slide your cursor over a single country you can see the percentage of online users for that year. At the bottom of the map is a slider to change the year. This annual “play by play” shows us how far ahead North America is, especially when it stops in 2008, but it also shows us how far behind Africa is with an estimated 6.8% penetration.
Estimated Internet Usage in 2008 by Country
Like other examples we have featured on this blog this is simply another interesting way of showing how data can be displayed in a meaningful way. Also, the use of the time line helps us see growth and explains a larger part of the picture.