Internet Stats

Overview  Size, use, change, demographics, and bandwidth are just some of the Internet statistics of interest to Web users and developers alike. Any complex system is difficult to describe without the help of statistics, and the Internet is definitely complex. Internet statistics are compiled by conducting random sampling surveys about a particular topic. These statistics provide useful information to Web developers, marketers, and users, especially in the context of e-commerce applications.

General Information  With the rapid growth of the Internet, keeping accurate statistics means frequently updating the data and conducting surveys. Some Web sites that specialize in Internet statistics run real-time monitors of certain Internet traffic aspects. These aspects include traffic volumes, response time, and packet loss at some of the largest Internet intersections.  To view an “Internet Traffic Report”, for either the entire world or just one continent, visit www.internettrafficreport.com/. The site AT&T Global IP Network provides a chart mapping the status of their network and a real-time Internet status connectivity map that is interactive! Also visit the Interstat homepage where you can search, read, and download articles about Internet statistics from a large and frequently updated database. Visualizing certain aspects of the Internet may also help bring into focus the enormous scope of its size, use, and growth. Visit Yahoo’s Internet Maps page to access a list of links to sites that contain Internet statistics and provide graphic representations of important aspects of the Internet.

Statistics on Internet Size and Use How big is the Internet? How many Internet users are there worldwide? What are the projections for future Internet growth, both in terms of hardware and users? These questions and more are answered at this Web page. Here you’ll find links to articles about, and visualizations of, the Internet. You can also find links to software that allows you to monitor your own network and Internet connections. Another interesting Web page related to the size and scope of the Internet is www.waller.co.uk/web.htm, inluding facts, statistics, charts, and articles. Also, check out internetstatus.blogspot.com/ for the latest Internet statistics and the Internet size-related  “articles”. 

What does the future hold for the Internet in terms of its growth and number of users? Visit this Web page to view Internet and voice network traffic statistics reports from 1996 to the present. Some Internet statistics sites concentrate on marketing and usage prediction. One such site, cyberatlas.internet.com/, provides monthly Internet usage reports as well as other interesting Internet statistics related to marketing.

Internet Surveys and Demographics  How are Internet statistics compiled? Are there regional or demographics-related statistics? Answers to these questions can be found on the Web page entitled “Internet Surveys and Statistics”. Also be sure to look at this Yahoo directory of Internet surveys, statistics, and demographics for further information.

The Internet Software Consortium Web site contains their "ISC Internet Domain Survey” page. This page describes their mission to discover every host on the Internet by searching the entire Domain Name System (DNS). Another interesting way to view the scale of the Internet is to look at global Internet statistics, sorted by language, at a Web page such as www.glreach.com/globstats/.  You might even be surprised to learn that non-English Internet users outnumber English-speaking users by a 6 to 5 margin.

Additional Links Some rather unexpected Internet statistics have been compiled and published. These include this page that reports Internet fraud statistics. If you need help understanding the terminology of statistics, then visit the glossary of statistics terms.