You’d be surprised to know just how many adults use the Internet in India

Truthfully speaking, the Internet is here to stay. It’s been that way ever since it was created thanks to Sir Tim Berners Lee. And it may remain that way in the years and times to come. Today, it is simply unimaginable to have one’s vocation or profession minus the internet. In fact, leave the education and job-sector aside- government and private bodies, public-private institutions too, are extremely reliant on the Internet.

Pretty much everything that is happening in any industry, segment or a section of our lives- be it education, enterprise, industry, medicine and healthcare, technology (of course), manufacturing, production, infrastructure and related enterprise function on the usage of the Internet. It simply can’t do without.

That said, in a country like India- a mega caterer to innovations and landmarks in tech and software and ever a producer of talents that shine in the west- is immensely reliant on the internet for obvious reasons.

Is it not? But usually, when it comes to the usage of the world wide web, one cannot be blamed for thinking that there’s been an upward spiral in today’s world thanks to the phenomenon of social media. Social media is everywhere. And we also see our mothers and fathers, even our grandparents and other adults hanging out on the popular social media channels in today’s day and age.

And in here, lies a rather surprising statistic. From the outset, it just may seem like there may be so many users of the Internet today, particularly also from the perspective of there being so many people in India. But quite like the appearances that can be deceptive, one can be completely deceived in thinking that there may be a lot many users of the Internet here in India.

So, just what is the real figure? Have you ever thought about it? In the recent few years, there has been this incessant talk about the concept of “Digital India.” That India will soon be digitised and all provisions and dispensations of services and other government to public offerings will have a digitized record and presence is slated to be the final agenda- in a bid to transform the way the country functions. But despite all the hype surrounding the clear push toward making India digitised, the point here isn’t that how much of a digitalisation of India has transpired.

Rather, how many adult users are there in the country? And you’ll be surprised to know that only 25 per cent of the adults in India actually uses the Internet. So what does this boil down to? According to a research, this basically means that 1 in 4 people in India is making use of the world wide web. You’d be surprised to know that how many other countries are in the world that is so well connected?

For starters, South Korea is the most well-connected society when it comes to the internet-usage today. Around 96 per cent of adults use the web. The said survey was conducted in 37 countries. Along with regions like Sub-Saharan Africa, India too needs to catch up in the adult usage.

This study is conducted by the Pew Research Centre. And some important findings are in the following order:

One is often inquisitive about the smartphone and gadgets. The Smartphone ownership among adults in India went up from 12 per cent in 2013 to 22 per cent in 2017, while social media use went up from eight to 20 per cent during the same period.

So, what does that mean? It indicates that around 78 per cent of adults in India do not own a smartphone and a whopping 80 per cent of the population in the country have no clues about Facebook or Twitter.

A large swathe of the world today still needs to pull up its sock when it comes to the internet-usage. But surely, of late, the gap between the internet users in the developing economies and those of the developed or advanced economies has fallen a bit when compared to the previous times. Interestingly, in countries like Australia, the UK, Germany, France, Israel, Spain, Sweden, Canada and other regions- there are around 9 in every 10 adults that make use of the Internet. Can India, therefore, expect a climb up in some time?