According to the latest bulletin from Egypt ICT Indicators released by the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (MCIT), 78 percent of Egyptians access the internet via Mobile Internet services.
Egypt has 45.21 million internet users although the official report cited only 40.9 million users. At least 35.44 million Egyptians use Mobile Internet while 6.74 million use ASDL and 3.03 million use USB Modems.
Internet usage has been growing rapidly in Egypt throughout the past decade as part of the digital boom. The number of internet users has almost 6 times higher than what it was in 2010.
Data shows that Mobile Internet users have consistently been the majority of internet users since 2010.
The average annual growth rate of internet users is 22.2 percent. Some years have experienced a higher increase rate. For example, in 2011, the number of internet users increased by 53 percent from 2010. Whereas 2018 witnessed only a 6 percent increase from the previous year. This is because internet became more popular and accessible.
Internet World Stats highlighted that Egypt has the second highest number of internet users in Africa following Nigeria.
Egypt’s internet penetration is steadily growing at an annual average of 0.19 percent. In 2010, only 10 percent of the population accessed the internet. As of 2019, 45.33 percent of Egyptians have access to the internet. However, it is important to note that the Egypt ICT Indicators report stated that internet penetration has reached 48 percent.
On average, Egyptians spend 26 hours a week on the internet as of 2017, MidEast Media Survey ‘Media Use in the Middle East’ noted.
Egypt’s ICT Annual Report 2013-2017 revealed that 49.2 percent of Egyptian households have internet access at home.
Finding from the “Survey of ICT Usage in Households and Individuals” conducted by MCIT and the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) in 2017/2018 showed that 75.8 percent of households primarily use the internet to access via social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. An even larger portion, 79 percent, uses the internet to send emails according to the same report.
