2.2 billion surfers

Forrester Research is reporting that the number of people online around the world will grow more than 45% to 2.2 billion users by 2013.

According to the report, Asia is the biggest global Internet hot spot, and 43% of the world’s online population will reside in Asia by 2013, with 17 percent of the global online population in China. Growth rates in the U.S., Western Europe, and the major industrialized nations in Asia Pacific such as Australia, Japan, and South Korea will slow to between 1% and 3%, according to Forrester.

“While per capita online spending is likely to remain highest in North America, Western Europe, and the developed markets of Asia throughout the next five years, the shifting online population and growing spending power among Asian consumers means that Asian markets will represent a far greater percentage of the total in 2013 than they do today,” Forrester Research Senior Analyst Zia Daniell Wigder said in a statement.

The following two lists best explain Forrester’s prediction of changes in online usage.

Countries With The Most Internet Users: 2008
1. U.S.
2. China
3. Japan
4. Brazil
5. Germany

Countries With The Most Internet Users: 2013
1. China
2. U.S.
3. India
4. Japan
5. Brazil

Forrester also provided a geographic breakdown on future online growth patterns.

• North America
Online penetration in the U.S. is set to rise from 73% to 82% over the next five years, representing about a 3% annual growth rate.

• Europe
Internet usage in Russia and Turkey will grow by almost 8% annually, while growth in Spain’s online population will increase by an average of more than 5% each year.

• Asia
China’s online population (already the largest in the world) will rise by nearly 11% each year over the next half decade. By contrast, growth rates in some of the more mature markets such as Japan and South Korea will rise by less than 2% each year.

• Latin America
Brazil, the fourth largest market in the world in terms of number of Internet users, will see a 7% annual growth rate over the next five years.

• Africa and the Middle East
The countries of the Middle East and Africa currently represent just 8% of the global online population but over the next five years will see some of the highest growth rates in the world, around 13%.