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Image: Sun and Moon Pagodas, by judepics

Since December has increased its online population by 43 million since December, almost the equivalent of everyone in Spain coming online just half a year.

The lastest CNNIC (Chinese Internet Network Information Centre) report puts the total number of people at 252 million, making it of course the country with the most people online in the world.

Kaiser Kuo on the Ogilvy China blog has done us all a favour by filleting the report and presenting the most important data points in a post called CNNIC 22nd Report: Some Excerpts & Observations.

Naturally China’s size means that proportionately it trails other countries, but as Kaiser Kuo points out, at current growth rates it is catching up very quickly indeed:

The penetration rate of 19.1%, (which assumes a total population of about 1.325 billion) compares with penetration rates of 71.2% in South Korea and 68.4% in Japan, which rank among the highest in the world. Chinese Internet penetration is marginally lower than developmentally comparable Russia, which stands at 20.8%. Iceland is highest at 85.4%, the U.S. has 71.9%, India only 5.3%. Total global Internet penetration is higher than China’s still, at 21.1%. But at current growth rates China should be at or above the world average by year’s end.

Via @johnkerrnz on Twitter.