Internet users in India likely to cross 500 million by June 2018: Report

New Delhi: The number of Internet users in the country is expected to reach 500 million by June 2018, a survey has showed. The report was released after a joint survey conducted in 170 cities and 750 villages.

The report 'Internet in India 2017' released by the Internet and Mobile Association of India and Kantar IMRB said that India was estimated to have 481 million Internet users in December 2017, a growth of 11.34 percent over December 2016 figures.

As on December 2017, the overall Internet penetration is 35 percent of total population, the report said.

According to the findings of the report, urban India witnessed a growth of 9.66 percent from December 2016 and is presently estimated to have around 295 million Internet users as on December 2017.

On the other hand, rural India witnessed a growth of 14.11 percent from December 2016 and is presently estimated to have around 186 million Internet users as on December 2017, the report said.

The survey was conducted between June to August 2017 covering 60,000 individuals in urban India across 170 cities and 15,000 individuals across 750 villages in rural area.

An estimated 182.9 million urban users access Internet daily as compared to 98 million users in rural India.

While the top nine cities account for 35 percent of all urban Internet users, the smaller metros and non-metros have Internet penetration levels lower than the national average for rural India, the report added.

Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata are the top three cities that have the highest penetration, while Fatehpur, Jagdalpur and Imphal are on the bottom among the list of over 170 cities covered under the survey.