State of Connectivity 2015: A Report on Global Internet Access

, the second annual study by Facebook, takes a close look at the current state of global Internet connectivity, how it has changed since 2014 and how we can use the data identified to generate new insights. At the end of 2015, estimates showed that 3.2 billion people were online. This increase (up from 3 billion in 2014) is partly attributed to more affordable data and rising global incomes in 2014. Over the past 10 years, connectivity increased by approximately 200 to 300 million people per year. While this is positive news in terms of growth, it also means that globally, 4.1 billion people were still not internet users in 2015 (43 percent). In order to address the barriers to connectivity, corporations, governments, NGOs and non-profits need to work together to continue gathering more accurate data on the state of global connectivity, and develop global standards for collecting, reporting, and distributing this data.