China says it’s Number One in Internet Population. Is it?

by William Atkins

Saturday, 26 April 2008

Page 1 of 2 ! China states that it is the world’s largest Internet user country, with 221 million Internet users. However, it counts its people in a much more relaxed manner than the U.S., which has an estimated 212 million Internet users. China Internet Network Information Center (CINIC, or is it CNNIC) stated that China's internet users totaled 210 million at the end of 2007. The Nielsen/NetRatings (N/N) organization placed the U.S. count at 216 million for that same period. [PC World: “China Tops US for Internet Population Lead”] However, the China Internet Network Information Center stated on Thursday, April 24, 2008, that China reached 221 million Internet users at the end of February 2008. It was reported at that time by China Daily newspaper. One month later, it was also reported by Chinese research and consultation company BDA China that China had out-populated the United States in the Internet world. Bin Liu, a BDA analyst, stated, "Based on these sources and the assumption that these markets have continued to grow in 2008 to date at the same rates that they grew in 2007, we can conclude that China has by now comfortably surpassed the United States as the world's largest internet population.” [The Register: “China has world's largest online population”] According to PC World, the world average for all countries on the Internet is 19.1%. China has 16% of its people on the Internet. The United States stands at about 69.7%. As of the end of 2007, China had a population of about 1.32 billion people, while the United States had an estimated population of 301.14 million people (0.301 billion). These figures would give each countries Internet figures at 211.2 million (China) and 216.2 million (United States). Thus, these figures agree with the earlier CINIC and N/N figures. As of April 25, 2008, the U.S. Census Bureau makes the U.S. population at about 303.93 million people (0.304 billion). If you accept that the United States has 69.7% of its citizens using the Internet, then the United States would have 211.84 million Internet users. China is growing at an annual rate of about 7.5%. Thus, for this nine-month period, it should have grown by about 5.6%. Thus, 1.32 billion times 0.056 equals 0.074, or about 74 million additional people—resulting in about 1.39 billion people. Thus, 1.39 billion would be a good estimate for the population of China in April 2008. If you agree with 16% for the percentage of Chinese on the Internet, then China, as of April 2008, should have a population of about 222.4 million Internet users. So, as of April 2008, the United States has about 212 million Internet users and China has about 222 million users—agreeing generally with the statistics being tossed about. So, yes, China does have the most Internet users in the world--when counted in the manner that it was counted by both countries. However, let’s read on and compare how the United States counts its Internet users versus the method used by the Chinese. << First page <   1 2 Next page > Last page - Post your comment >>

 

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