India’s digital adoption has been driven by the rural heartland of the country, registering a high growth of internet users compared to their urban counterparts. In 2021, there were 352 million internet users in rural India compared to 294 million urban internet users.
Bridging the internet gap
This jump in rural internet penetration was largely owing to the increased availability of bandwidth, cheap data plans and various government initiatives under the Digital India campaign. As of 2019, over 118 thousand village and small-town councils, called Gram Panchayats, were equipped with internet access across India. Of these, Uttar Pradesh had the maximum connectivity in its rural areas with over 28 thousand internet equipped gram panchayats. These factors also led to an overall spike in the internet penetration rates across the country. From just over 27 percent internet penetration rate in 2015, India reached almost 49 percent by 2019.
A perspective on the numbers
Although these figures seem relatively low, it indicated that about 639 million would be internet users by December 2020. This ranked India second in terms of active internet users across the world that same year.
Number of internet users in India from 2017 to 2021, by region
(in millions)
Profit from the additional features of your individual account
Currently, you are using a shared account. To use individual functions (e.g., mark statistics as favourites, set
statistic alerts) please log in with your personal account.
If you are an admin, please authenticate by logging in again.
Statista Accounts:
Access All Statistics. Starting from $468 / Year
Learn more about how Statista can support your business.
Business Standard. (May 5, 2022). Number of internet users in India from 2017 to 2021, by region (in millions) [Graph]. In Statista. Retrieved August 15, 2022, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/751060/number-of-internet-users-by-region-india/
Business Standard. "Number of internet users in India from 2017 to 2021, by region (in millions)." Chart. May 5, 2022. Statista. Accessed August 15, 2022. https://www.statista.com/statistics/751060/number-of-internet-users-by-region-india/
Business Standard. (2022). Number of internet users in India from 2017 to 2021, by region (in millions). Statista. Statista Inc.. Accessed: August 15, 2022. https://www.statista.com/statistics/751060/number-of-internet-users-by-region-india/
Business Standard. "Number of Internet Users in India from 2017 to 2021, by Region (in Millions)." Statista, Statista Inc., 5 May 2022, https://www.statista.com/statistics/751060/number-of-internet-users-by-region-india/
Business Standard, Number of internet users in India from 2017 to 2021, by region (in millions) Statista, https://www.statista.com/statistics/751060/number-of-internet-users-by-region-india/ (last visited August 15, 2022)