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Overall, mobile broadband subscriptions have grown by more than 20 percent annually in the last five years with ITU saying it expects the number to hit 4.3 billion by the end of 2017/FILE

Kenya

830mn access internet worldwide, youths lead in adoption

Overall, mobile broadband subscriptions have grown by more than 20 percent annually in the last five years with ITU saying it expects the number to hit 4.3 billion by the end of 2017/FILE

NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 31 – There are 830 million young people who are online, with youths between 15 and 24 years old leading in internet adoption.

This is according to new data released by ITU which also shows a significant increase in broadband access and subscriptions with China leading the way.

Broken down, in the least Developed Countries, up to 35 percent of individuals using the internet are aged 15-24, compared with 13 percent in developed countries and 23 percent globally. “In China and India alone, up to 320 million young people use the internet.”

Overall, mobile broadband subscriptions have grown by more than 20 percent annually in the last five years with ITU saying it expects the number to hit 4.3 billion by the end of 2017.

The proportion of men using the internet remains slightly higher than that of women in two-thirds of countries worldwide at 50.9 percent and 44.9 percent respectively. In the Americas, however, the number of women using the internet is higher than that of men.

The number of fixed-broadband subscriptions has increased by 9 percent annually in the last five years with up to 300 million subscriptions added. However, mobile broadband is more affordable than fixed broadband I most developing countries.

International internet bandwidth grew by 32 between 2015 and 2016, with Africa registering an increase of 72 percent during this period, the highest of all regions.

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