Facebook Inc. CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s side project Internet.org has released its findings on the current state of global internet access and connectivity, proving that while the internet has become ubiquitous in some countries, most of the world still can’t watch funny cat videos on their phones.

“With the benefit of connected devices, people from all over the world are changing the way business is done, how governments relate to their people, and people relate to their governments,” the report says. “And yet, while a lot of people have access to the internet, most people do not. The internet is still only accessible by a minority of people. ”

According to the report, only 37.9 percent of the world’s population accesses the internet at least once a year, but the percentage is far higher in developed nations, especially the West. The region with the highest percentage of internet users is North America, where 84.4 percent of the total population has at least some access to the internet. South Asia has the lowest percentage of internet users with just 13.7 percent.

 Barriers to entry

The report outlines three key areas that influence the growth of internet connectivity within a region: infrastructure, affordability, and relevance.

Infrastructure refers to the physical systems needed to provide internet access such as phone lines, electricity, satellite connections, and so on. But the report points out that 90 percent of the world’s population lives within the range of a mobile connection, meaning that a lack of infrastructure is not the primary obstacle holding back greater internet access.

Therefore, one of the main difficulties many people face is affordability. A mobile connection right outside someone’s window might as well be hundreds of miles away of they can’t afford a data plan or a device capable of accessing the network. The Internet.org report points out that the wages of many people in sub-Saharan Africa could afford them only 1-2 hours of mobile internet access a month.

Finally, relevance refers to the amount of internet content that is actually relevant to local people. If there are no sites or apps in a region’s native language or that deal with locally relevant topics, then that group has less incentive to push for internet access.

Facebook said in a statement, “To provide relevant content to 80 percent of the world would require sufficient content in at least 92 languages.”

photo credit: NASA GOES-13 Full Disk view of Earth July 14, 2010 via photopin (license)