Africa Internet Statistics (Jan 2020 Update)

The maps above show the number of internet users in each country across the African continent, as well as the percentage of the population that has access to the internet – a metric referred to as internet penetration.

At a glance, we can see that Nigeria, Egypt, Kenya and South Africa have the highest number of internet users. This can largely be attributed to the fact that these countries are the most populous on the continent but the relatively advanced economies of these nations also plays an important role in the high number of internet users.

This is evident from the fact that although DR. Congo is among the top 5 most populous countries on the continent, the number of internet users is relatively low because the economy does not really stack up against the likes of Nigeria, Egypt, Kenya and South Africa.

Pivoting to the next graph, the data reveals even more about internet usage across the continent. The choropleth on the right tries to take out the population bias present in the first map by quantifying the number of internet users in the country as a percentage of the general population. Here, we can see that the northern and southern regions of Africa have the highest number of internet users per capita.

There is an even spread of internet penetration in western Africa with Nigeria and Cote D’Ivoire leading the way but in eastern and central Africa the internet penetration numbers are generally low, with Kenya and Gabon being the only two real exceptions. In this map, more clearly than the previous map, the positive correlation between strength of economy and internet penetration is clearer and although the correlation is not absolute it a trend worth noting.

One interesting outlier here is Ethiopia, which has only 17.8% of the population using the internet even though they have gone from a notably fast growing economy to one of the leading economies on the continent in the last 15 years.

Source: Internet World Stats