Nearly 750 million people ages 15 and older used the Internet worldwide in January 2007, up 10% over January 2006, according to new data from comScore Media Metrix.
India, the Russian Federation and China all saw heavy Internet user growth in 2006, growing 33%, 21% and 20%, respectively. China now has the world's second-largest Internet population, with 87 million users ages 15 and older. The US had 153 million users ages 15 or older in January 2007.
"Internet users outside the U.S. now account for 80 percent of the world's online population," reported Bob Ivins of comScore Europe, "with rapidly developing countries experiencing double-digit growth rates year-over-year."
eMarketer senior analyst Ben Macklin estimates that China will have the world's largest Internet market in number of Internet users by the end of the decade.
eMarketer's own numbers are based on data from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and are not limited to users ages 15 and older. They also are full-year estimates, rather than just one-month snapshots. eMarketer put the total number of Internet users worldwide at 1.1 billion in 2006.
For a comprehensive view of global Internet penetration, read eMarketer's Worldwide Internet Users: 2005-2011 report.