People use smartphones in Tokyo’s Akihabara district in September 2024. (Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images)
A median of 28% of adults across 24 countries say they are online almost constantly. An additional 40% say they use the internet several times a day, while 9% do not use it at all, according to a Pew Research Center survey from this spring.
How we did this
This Pew Research Center analysis explores how often people in 24 countries say they use the internet. Respondents outside of the United States answered the question, “About how often do you use the internet, whether on a computer, tablet or cellphone – almost constantly, several times a day, about once a day, several times a week, less often or do you not use the internet?” In the U.S., respondents were asked, “About how often do you use the internet?”
For non-U.S. data, this analysis draws on nationally representative surveys of 26,504 adults conducted from Jan. 8 to April 26, 2025. All surveys were conducted over the phone with adults in Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, South Korea, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Surveys were conducted face-to-face in Argentina, Brazil, India, Indonesia, Israel, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, South Africa and Turkey.
We surveyed 5,022 U.S. adults from Feb. 5 to June 18, 2025. Data collection contractor SSRS conducted this National Public Opinion Reference Survey (NPORS) for the Center using address-based sampling and a multimode protocol that included web, mail and phone options. This way, nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race and ethnicity, education and other categories. Read more about the NPORS methodology.
To measure internet use in the U.S., respondents answered two questions:
“Do you use the internet or email, at least occasionally?”
“Do you access the internet on a cellphone, tablet or other mobile handheld device, at least occasionally?”
On the web and phone surveys, only people who said “yes” to either question were asked how often they use the internet. All respondents who took the paper survey answered the frequency question.
Here are the questions used for this analysis, along with responses, and the survey methodology.
What is a median?
Medians are used to help readers see overall patterns in the data. The median percentage of adults across the 24 countries is the middle number in a list of all percentages sorted from highest to lowest.
There are large differences across the countries surveyed when it comes to almost constant internet use. The shares who say they are online this much range from 13% of adults in Nigeria to a 56% majority in Japan.
Almost half of adults in South Korea say they use the internet almost constantly. Roughly four-in-ten say this in Argentina, Israel, Spain, Turkey and the United States.
In Canada and several European countries, about half of adults or more say they use the internet several times a day.
Meanwhile, a substantial minority in some countries do not use the internet at all. Internet use is lowest in India and the three sub-Saharan African nations we surveyed. Roughly a quarter of adults in South Africa and Nigeria and around a third in India and Kenya say they do not use the internet at all.
And while most adults in Japan are online almost constantly, 14% do not use the internet at all. In Europe, Canada and the U.S., the share who are not online is around 10% or smaller.
In general, larger shares of adults are online in wealthier nations. However, there is no significant relationship between a country’s wealth (as measured by gross domestic product per capita) and the share of people who say they are online almost constantly.
In most countries, though, people with lower incomes or less education are less likely to use the internet almost constantly.
Differences by age within countries
Previous Center surveys have found that younger adults around the world have higher rates of internet adoption and social media use. Similarly, younger adults are more likely than older adults to be almost always online in every country we surveyed this spring.
These age gaps can be very large. In Turkey, for example, 12% of adults ages 50 and older say they use the internet almost constantly, compared with 64% of adults under 35.
Majorities of young adults also say they are almost always online in Argentina, France, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Spain and the U.S. In these countries, the gaps between younger and older adults on this question are 36 percentage points or more.
Japan has the highest rates of frequent internet use for both younger and older adults: 85% of those under 35 and 38% of those 50 or older say they are online almost constantly.
Note: Here are the questions used for this analysis, along with responses, and the survey methodology.