Line graph: Internet users (% of population)

The line graph compares the proportion of people using the internet in South Korea, Brazil, India and Nigeria over a twenty-year period from 2000 to 2020.

Overall, internet use rose in every country, but the gap between the leading and trailing nations narrowed considerably. Brazil recorded by far the most dramatic growth, whereas India and Nigeria remained well behind the other two.

South Korea led throughout, climbing from 44% in 2000 to 74% in 2008 and then more slowly to 96% by 2020. Brazil began at just 3%, but its figure grew at an accelerating pace, reaching 25% in 2008, 59% in 2016 and 81% in 2020, which left it only 15 percentage points below South Korea.

India and Nigeria started from almost nothing, at 1% and 0% respectively. Both rose gradually until 2008, when they stood at 5% and 8%, and then expanded faster. By 2012 the figures were 10% for India and 16% for Nigeria, and by 2020 they had reached 35% and 36%, so the two countries finished almost level.