According to the new report from the GSM Association, the number of smartphone owners increased to 4.3 billion by the end of 2022. In other words, more than half of the world’s population now has access to the Internet via a mobile device. A significant increase since the 2010s.
If life without a smartphone now seems very distant to us, we tend to forget that the use of this device is still far from universal. If the new generation telephone has largely established itself in the West, and more generally in the economic North, its breakthrough is still timid in the rest of the world, despite Dantean figures for mid-range models. That being said, the number of users is increasing every day.
According to the latest report from the GSM Association, there are now no less than 4.3 billion smartphone owners, or 55% of the world population. Additionally, 4.6 billion people now have access to the Internet via a mobile device, including 4 billion via a smartphone. The rest, or 600 million people, still use a feature phone (a “basic” mobile phone). Figures which contrast with the more than 8 billion smartphones in circulation in the world.
More than half of the world’s population owns a smartphone
This disparity is certainly explained by the number of smartphones per user, necessarily higher in the most affluent countries. So, unsurprisingly, more than three-quarters of new smartphone users are residents of developing countries. Furthermore, while 69% of North American and East Asian users connect to 4G, the majority of users in Sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa and the Middle East are satisfied with 3G connectivity.
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3.4 billion people are still not connected to the Internet. Additionally, 38% of people living in an indoor area do not have connected devices, a figure that rises to 59% in sub-Saharan Africa and 52% in South Asia. The GSMA cites a lack of digital skills, illiteracy and even fears about security as obstacles to the development of Internet access.
Source: GSM Association