How many people are using the Internet?

In the US Government study, A Nation Online: How Americans Are Expanding Their Use of the Internet, 174 million Americans were currently online.  World wide, there are an estimated 655 million Internet users.  

How many new users are entering the Internet?

The number of American Internet users is growing at a rate of about 2 million a month.

Is the information content of the Internet growing?

The OCLC concludes that the size of the public Internet is beginning to stabilize.  While the number of servers isn't growing as rapidly as in the early days of the net, the number of pages offered by each site is growing.  Our best estimate is that there are from 3 to 6 billion pages of information available to search engines, with about 7 million new pages going online each day.

Has Internet growth changed the Digital Divide?

The Digital Divide or the Internet access gap between the rich and the poor has been narrowed in the United States by the expanding presence of Internet linked computers in schools. A Nation Online indicates that Internet use is increasing for all Americans, regardless of income, age, education, race, ethnic origin, or gender.  Between December 1998 and September 2001, Internet use in the lowest-income households (those earning less than $15,000 per year) increased at a 25% annual growth rate.

What are the most popular uses for the Internet?

E-mail remains the number one Internet tool and is used by about 45% of users.  Searching for resources about products and services is also important to Internet users with 36% of all users seeking some form of information.