The line chart illustrates the trend of internet usage worldwide, reported as number of individuals using the internet in millions, over 7 years, from 1995 to 2002. The pie chart shows the proportion of people using the technology, classified by their countries, in the year 2003.
Overall, accessing the internet has expanded considerably over the given time period, especially following an explosive increase since 1999. This use has been greatest in North American countries as reflected in Canada and the US accounting for over half of all the users in 2003.
In the last 5 years of the twentieth century, the world only steadily increased consuming the web, but this drastically changed after 1999, with a doubling of the numbers online in 2000 (195 and 451 million, respectively). Thereafter, there was a plateauing of this trend, stabilising at a little less than 600 million.
In 2003, Europe, USA and Canada together comprised more than three-quarters of individuals online, while Africa and the Middle East accounted for only 1% each. While Asia Pacific made up 15%, South America constituted 6% of the global online population.