India is home to the world’s second-largest internet user base, and it will reach an important milestone in 2024, when half of its total population will go online on a monthly basis. Here’s what you need to know about this populous and diverse market.

There will be 653 million internet users in India this year. On this measure, India is second only to China, which will have 1.03 billion online users this year, according to our latest forecast. (China and India also rank first and second, respectively, in the world in terms of their population.)

• Although annual user growth will slow from 5.1% this year to 2.3% in 2026, there will still be more internet users in India in 2026 than in the US, the UK, Germany, and Canada combined (488.2 million vs. 737.5 million in India).