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About This Statistic
The statistic shows the number of mobile connections worldwide from 2008 to 2020. The number of global mobile connections is predicted to reach around 8.24 billion by 2017.
Mobile connections - additional information
The first prototype of a handheld mobile phone was presented to the world in 1973, but it took more than three decades until mobile phones became accessible and affordable for almost everyone. In fact, figures show that there are over 7.5 billion worldwide mobile connections today, a number slightly higher than the estimated global population. By 2020, the number of active mobile phone subscriptions is expected to increase to over 9 billion. Classic mobile phone use is on the decline however, with some 61 percent of worldwide mobile phone users owning a smartphone as of 2015.
The world region with most mobile subscriptions is currently Asia Pacific, due to the area’s large population. As of 2015, Asia Pacific boasted over 3.7 billion cellular connections, three times more than both South and North America combined. In fact, no less than seven Asian states (including transcontinental Russia) are present in a top 10 ranking of countries with the highest number of mobile- subscriptions. As of 2014, China is the largest market of mobile phone subscriptions in the world, home to some 1.3 billion mobile-cellular users, the equivalent of about one fifth of worldwide subscriptions. By 2019, this number is expected to increase to 1.46 billion subscriptions.
Although the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States), which includes some of the former member-states of the Soviet Union, ranks last in terms of number of mobile phone subscriptions, the region is first in terms of mobile phone penetration. As of 2015, there are an estimated 138.1 subscriptions per 100 inhabitants in the area, due to the fact that many users have multiple mobile phones at the same time.
