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China has surpassed the US to claim the largest internet population in the world, according to a 24 April report in China’s state media.

At the end of 2007, China had 210 million internet users compared with 216 million in the US, according to Nielsen/Netratings. China has the fastest growing population of Internet users in the world, so it is likely to have overtaken the US sometime earlier this year.

Reuters reports that at the end of February, the number of Internet users in China stood at 221 million. By the end of March, the figure climbed to 233 million, according to Beijing-based research firm, BDA China.

BDA expects China to hit 280 million Internet users by the end of the year. Internet usage in the country increased by 53 per cent in 2007, according to the China Internet Network Information Centre, which produces statistics for the Ministry of Information Industry. It reports that 40 percent of new users came from rural areas. The Centre defines a user as anyone who uses the Internet at least once per month for any function.

The proportion of users in China is only 17 per cent compared with the world average of 19.1 per cent and about 71 per cent in the US.

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