An estimated 36% of people in the International Telecommunication Union’s Africa region used the internet in 2025, compared with 74% globally, according to ITU’s Facts and Figures statistics.
Understanding the comparison
The comparison highlights a substantial connectivity gap. It also requires care: the regional figure follows ITU’s geographic classification and should not be treated as a separate estimate for every African country.
Internet use is different from network coverage, phone ownership or the number of mobile subscriptions. A person may live within reach of a signal without regularly going online, while one user may hold more than one subscription.
Access is more than a signal
For reporting on digital services, these distinctions are essential. A mobile service does not automatically establish that its users have affordable access to the wider internet.
The next questions are local ones: what does data cost, which devices are accessible, how reliable is the service, and what skills do users need? National statistics and interviews can help answer them. A continental estimate identifies the scale of a challenge; it does not explain every community’s experience.
Source: ITU: Facts and Figures 2025, Internet use.
Featured photo credit: M-Pesa displayed on a Nokia phone, April 2012. Archive context image of mobile services, not evidence of internet use. Original is 1000px wide; replace with a larger original photograph for a Discover-focused hero.
Photo: Rosenfeld Media / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 2.0. Open original photo and licence record.
