For this publication, regional and global aggregates up to 2025, are calculated using data supplied by Member States to ITU, supplemented where necessary by ITU estimates. Aggregates for those years may differ from those produced for earlier editions of Facts and Figures, owing to new or revised data submitted by Member States. Except for price data, all 2025 aggregates are ITU estimates computed using the methodology described below. For more detailed information, see estimation methods for selected ICT indicators.
The percentage of the population covered by a mobile signal (2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G) refers to the percentage of inhabitants who have access to such coverage, regardless of whether they use the service. The indicator thus measures the availability of mobile cellular services, rather than the actual level of use or subscriptions. Data are disaggregated by urban and rural areas.
Coverage indicators are reported in aggregate form only (combining urban and rural coverage). As with many ICT indicators, ITU collects this data from telecommunication operators, telecommunication/ICT regulators and telecommunication/ICT ministries. This information is widely available from developed and developing countries alike. For countries that do not submit data, ITU applies two estimation methods: 1) estimation based on published data; and, if not feasible, 2) estimation based on trends.
Estimation based on published data
Data on coverage are sometimes available in the reports or on the websites of regulators or operators. This information can be used to estimate network coverage for the population of a country. The estimation process applies the following steps:
Once the data from all operators are available, the total percentage of the population covered can be calculated.
Estimation based on trends
When data are not available from filings or industry reports, it may be possible to produce estimates by analysing trends from the previous five years, using forecasting tools such as Expert Modeller in IBM SPSS.
As the data available for most countries do not differentiate between urban and rural coverage, they require disaggregation. This is a straightforward calculation, since mobile cellular coverage is virtually ubiquitous in urban areas and the proportion of urban to rural inhabitants is published by the World Bank. Rural mobile population coverage is estimated by subtracting the urban population from the total population covered by a mobile signal, assuming urban areas are covered.
The percentage of the rural population covered by a mobile cellular signal (2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G) is then obtained by dividing the number of rural inhabitants with coverage, by the total rural population and multiplying by 100.
Aggregate values for regions, income groups and other groupings are calculated based on a weighted average of the values for individual countries.
Household surveys are a valuable source of statistics on Internet use and mobile phone ownership. Owing predominantly to their cost, however, relatively few countries administer such surveys and accordingly, there are large data gaps.
In addition, the delay between the collection of household survey data and their publication can be as much as two years or more, limiting their usefulness for ICT statistics given the rapid pace of technological change.
To overcome these shortcomings, data modelling and imputation are used to estimate missing historical values, and nowcasting techniques have been used to estimate the figures for 2026. The models used to estimate these missing values rely on a diverse range of widely available national indicators for mobile broadband subscriptions, ICT services affordability and GNI per capita, among others, and account for their changes over time. Weighted regression is used to give proportional influence in models to each region based on the number of countries in the region.
As well as official data from the membership, important sources used to obtain data and/or cross-check estimates include the Gallup World Poll and the United Nations Children’s Fund household survey – the Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys. Additional data on socio-demographic characteristics are obtained from the World Bank, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the International Labour Organization, and the Population Division in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations (UN DESA). The 2026 estimates have also implemented new urbanization data from the UN DESA Population Division, which now classifies the territory of countries into cities, towns and rural areas, rather than the previous urban/rural binary classification.[1] The application of this new classification (with cities and towns assumed to comprise urban areas) has resulted in data that show a substantial decrease in the share of the world population residing in rural areas.
Official data and estimates are used to calculate aggregate values for regions, income groups and other groupings, based on a weighted average of the values for individual countries. Since household surveys on Internet use rarely include children younger than five years old, estimates of total Internet users based on this weighted average should be interpreted with caution. Mobile phone ownership aggregates are weighted by the size of the population aged 10 years and older.
Disaggregation of overall values is performed separately. For instance, where official country data on the number of Internet users are only available in aggregate form, available disaggregated data for urban and rural populations from comparable economies are analysed to estimate the percentage point gap between urban and rural Internet use. Existing data on the country’s overall Internet usage, population size, and urbanization are then used to derive estimates of the proportions of the urban and rural populations using the Internet. Global and regional figures are calculated by weighting the figures for individual countries by the rural and urban population in each country.
A similar procedure is used to estimate Internet use and mobile phone ownership by gender. Internet use by young people is estimated directly with the “rest of population” derived from this estimate based on overall Internet use and population distribution by age.
For 2026, nowcasting has been used to estimate the proportion of individuals who use the Internet and own mobile phones. Predictions have been made at the country level for overall Internet use and mobile phone ownership based on the country’s growth history and that of other countries with similar levels of use. For all other indicators, predictions have been produced for regional and global aggregates only, based on past growth.
The data on subscriptions in 2026 have been compiled from publicly available data from telecommunication/ICT regulators or ministries, as well as subscription information published by each country’s main operators. When operator data are used, the reported number of subscriptions is divided by the operator’s market share to obtain the total number of subscriptions in the country for a particular service. In the absence of annual reports, subscription data are estimated from industry analyses, authoritative news articles, and operator press releases.
Data from these sources include the absolute number of subscriptions, market shares, penetration, and growth rates which are used to derive the country estimates using the same method employed with operator data. In the case of countries for which data are not available either from the national administration or from filings and industry reports, subscriptions have been estimated using univariate time series analyses applied to the data from the last 10 years.
Univariate time series analyses are done by decomposing the time series of penetration data of a particular service to its trend and residual component so as to obtain the autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) models. The resulting ARIMA models have been used to make the point prediction for 2026 for each country and service.
Aggregate values for regions, income groups and other groupings are calculated based on a weighted average of the values for individual countries.
ITU collects Internet traffic statistics on fixed and mobile broadband (inside the country) through its annual World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators questionnaires, according to the methodology provided in the Handbook for the Collection of Administrative Data on Telecommunications/ICT.
Statistics refer to traffic over the open Internet and thus exclude ‘walled garden’ and IPTV services. Internet traffic over a mobile device connected through Wi-Fi to a fixed network is considered part of fixed broadband traffic.
Traffic figures for 2026 are estimates based on an extrapolation of trends in quarterly traffic per subscription, for countries that publish such figures. For all other countries, model-based estimates have been used, relying on changes in subscriptions (see above) and average download speed, obtained from Ookla Speedtest data.[2]
Where Internet traffic statistics are not available from the questionnaires, the figures are compiled from publicly available sources from regulators, ministries, the OECD Broadband statistics, or operator reports. In the absence of any of these alternative sources, ITU produces estimates, using modelling tools and imputation to estimate aggregates.
Fixed broadband Internet traffic estimates are based on the assumption that traffic is a function of technical conditions, moderating factors such as quality of connectivity, and economic factors influencing demand. Consequently, models rely on ITU indicators, such as the number of fixed broadband subscriptions (overall, and in the speed tier above 100 Mbit/s), the share of individuals and households using the Internet, affordability of the fixed broadband price basket, average download speeds obtained from Ookla Speedtest data, degree of urbanization, and per capita income obtained from the World Bank. Mobile broadband traffic estimates are based on ITU data, including data-only mobile broadband affordability, share of individuals using the Internet, Ookla Speedtest data for average download speed, and per capita income. The actual linear model selected is based on data availability and model fit measures.
In cases where data are only missing for some of the years, extrapolations are made with the help of changes in average download speeds or exponential smoothing functions.
Traffic estimates have several limitations. One is that many mobile operators and Internet service providers do not regularly publish traffic statistics, and the statistics provided by ministries and regulators often include estimates. While there are some good practices for publishing quarterly data on Internet traffic, few sources provide data in a timely manner. A second limitation is that the predictive power of the models used to estimate traffic is lower than for other indicators
ITU price statistics refer to ICT baskets, which are internationally comparable units of ICT services. The Affordability of ICT services section above presents medians based on the 202 economies for which price data are available for both 2025 and 2026, for the data-only mobile broadband basket, and on the 192 economies for which such data are available for the fixed broadband basket. The data-only mobile broadband basket is defined as the cheapest, non-promotional, data-only mobile broadband offering available domestically with a 3G technology or above, and a minimum monthly data allowance of 5 GB. The fixed broadband basket is defined as the cheapest fixed Internet subscription available domestically with a minimum of 5 GB monthly data allowance, and an advertised download speed of at least 256 kbit/s, using the most commonly available technology in the country.
The 2026 ICT prices refer to retail prices for the basket in effect in February/March 2026 and published on operator websites. GNI per capita figures (in local currency, at current prices) are obtained from the World Bank World Development Indicators and refer to the most recent available year (2025 or 2024), retrieved in July 2026; or, if unavailable, from the UN DESA National Accounts Main Aggregates Database. More information on the ICT service price data collection methodology is available in the Manual.
[1] https://www.un.org/development/desa/pd/world-urbanization-prospects-2025.
[2] Ookla Speedtest data. Speedtest by Ookla Global Fixed and Mobile Network Performance Maps was accessed in September 2026 from https://registry.opendata.aws/speedtest-global-performance.