Key messages

1. Globally, 2.2 billion children and young people aged 25 years or less – two-thirds of children and young people worldwide – do not have an internet connection at home.
2. More than two-thirds of school-age girls and boys aged approximately 3 to 17 years (1.3 billion children) and 63 per cent of youths aged 15 to 24 years (almost 760 million youths) lack internet access at home.
3. 768 million children and young people aged 25 years or less who lack internet access live in South Asia. In the regions of East Asia and Pacific, West and Central Africa and Eastern and Southern Africa more than 300 million children and young people per region lack home internet access, totaling more than 900 million without access.
4. There is marked inequality in internet connectivity across the world’s regions. Only 5 per cent of children and young people aged 25 years or less in West and Central Africa, and just 13 per cent in South Asia and in Eastern and Southern Africa, have internet access at home, compared to 59 per cent in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
5. Differences in access to the internet are even starker between rich and poor countries. Among children and young people aged 25 years or less only 6 per cent in low-income countries have internet access at home, compared to 87 per cent in high-income countries.
6. A large difference is also seen globally in levels of home internet access between children and young people who live in rural areas (25 per cent) and their urban peers (41 per cent).
7. Socioeconomic inequalities within countries also produce notable differences in internet access. Globally, 58 per cent of children and young people aged 25 years or less whose families are among the richest 20 per cent in their countries have internet access at home, whereas only 16 per cent of children and young people from the poorest 20 per cent of households in their countries have such access. While high-income countries have high rates of internet access, sizable gaps exist – although the richest households have near universal access at 97 per cent, only 74 per cent of the poorest households have access.
8. The gap in home internet access between children and young people aged 25 years or less from the poorest and richest households is greatest in upper-middle-income countries, where it exceeds 50 percentage points. In contrast, while only 2 per cent of children and young people from the poorest households in low-income countries have internet access at home, just 16 per cent of their richest peers are connected, which underscores the low prevalence of internet access.
9. The impact of wealth on internet access is also visible at the regional level. In West and Central Africa, internet access for the poorest populations is almost non-existent. In Eastern and Southern Africa, just 3 per cent of children and young people aged 25 years or less from the poorest families have internet access at home, compared to 40 per cent of children and young people from the richest families. The largest regional disparity in internet access due to household wealth is seen in the East Asia and Pacific region, where only 23 per cent of children and young people from the poorest households have internet access compared to more than 80 per cent among the richest households.

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