More than 6 billion people, or nearly 73% of the world’s population, now use the internet
On May 17, 1991, a unified World Wide Web standard was adopted worldwide. Work on the World Wide Web project began in 1989 by British scientist Timothy Berners-Lee from the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). The hypertext web page system, or the “World Wide Web” as we know it today, took its familiar form on May 17, 1991, when a single standard for all web pages on the internet was officially adopted.
As of the end of 2025, 6.04 billion people use the internet — more than 73% of the world’s population. Over the year, the online audience grew by nearly 300 million users, and the growth rate still exceeds 5% annually. In other words, several new internet users appear every second around the world — and this is no longer limited to “emerging” markets, but represents mass connectivity. This is stated in the Global Overview Digital 2026 report, according to the Prompolitinform portal.
The report’s authors note that mobile internet has firmly established itself as the primary access channel. There are 5.78 billion unique mobile phone users worldwide, and more than 86% of all mobile devices are smartphones. For most people, a smartphone is the only way to access the internet. This means the entire digital experience — from advertising to e-commerce — is now designed primarily for small screens.
Against the backdrop of global figures, Ukraine appears not as a periphery, but as a full-fledged part of the digital world. As of October 2025, the country has 35.3 million internet users, representing nearly 90% of the population. This level is comparable to many EU countries and fundamentally changes the logic of working with audiences: in Ukraine, there is practically no such thing as an “offline market” as a separate category.
Social networks in Ukraine are used by 23 million people, and an important nuance is gender balance. Women account for 51.6% of social media users, while men make up 48.4%. At first glance, the difference seems small, but it matters in advertising and content strategies. For example, within the Meta ecosystem, women account for more than 60% of the adult advertising audience, directly affecting the effectiveness of creatives, messaging, and formats.
The world’s first website was created by British scientist from the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) and World Wide Web developer Tim Berners-Lee on December 20, 1990, at CERN in Geneva. The site described a new technology for global information exchange that became the foundation for the development of the modern internet.
The first official website in Ukraine is considered to be the web representation of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (www.rada.kiev.ua), launched in 1995. It became the first state web resource in the .ua domain zone and marked the beginning of the presence of Ukrainian institutions on the internet.
Photo from open sources
