4 Billion People Still Not Online

Despite an increase in global Internet usage and efforts to boost international Web access, some 4 billion people remain offline.

Over the last 15 years, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has seen the number of global Internet users increase from 400 million to an expected 3.2 billion by year's end. Along the way, however, many billions of people were left by the wayside, without access to email, texts, social media, digital maps, or even statistics about themselves.

Industry heavyweights like Facebook and Google are working to bring free or cheap Internet access to emerging markets, teaming with local ISPs or launching balloon-based Internet service.

Internet.org and Google's Project Loon are still in their infancy, but ITU announced that between 2000 and 2015, Internet penetration overall increased almost seven fold from 6.5 to 43 percent of the global population.

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