68 of every 100 people are online

The message

About two thirds of the world uses the internet, and about one person in three still doesn't. The offline third is the less familiar half of the story, so it needs to be as visible as the online part.

Why a pictogram

When the data is one share of a whole, the usual choices are a pie, a single stacked bar, or a unit chart like this grid of 100 people. Pies are fine for one share, but people still read angles poorly. A grid of 100 lets anyone count: 68 filled, 32 outlined. "If the world were 100 people" is also a frame readers already know, so it needs no explanation.

The trade-off is precision. A grid of 100 can only show whole percentage points. That is fine here, since the ITU estimate is itself rounded and the message doesn't depend on decimals.

Filled and outlined

Online people are filled in the accent color. Offline people are drawn as outlines in gray. The difference is shape and fill as well as color, so the chart still works in grayscale, on a black-and-white printer, or for readers with color vision deficiency. The key below the grid repeats both counts in words with the absolute numbers (5.5 billion and 2.6 billion), since some readers think in people rather than percentages.

Icons, carefully

A person icon is generic on purpose: no gender, no age, no skin tone. Icons in infographics tend to carry more meaning than designers intend, and a neutral shape keeps the reader's attention on the count.

What the number is

ITU's figures are estimates built from national data, and some countries report infrequently. ITU also revises earlier years as new data arrives. Its 2024 release put 2023 at 65 percent after revision. If you compare years, take all the numbers from the same edition.