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Forrester: 2.2 billion people online globally by 2013

Of that estimate, projected Tuesday by Forrester Research, 43 percent of the Internet population will be in Asia.

Larry Dignan

This was originally posted at ZDNet's Between the Lines.

Forrester Research on Tuesday projected that the Internet population will hit 2.2 billion people by 2013. Of that tally, 43 percent of the Internet population will be in Asia.

In a report, Forrester paints a picture of Internet growth in emerging markets and stagnation in the developing world.

Among the key findings:

• 17 percent of the online population will reside in China.
• Growth rates in the U.S., Western Europe and other industrialized nations will be between 1 percent and 3 percent.
• Online penetration in the U.S. will rise to 82 percent in 2013, up from 73 percent today. That rate will put it on par with other Internet saturated countries. • Russia and Turkey growth will grow 8 percent a year.
• Africa and the Middle East will show strong growth to hit 13 percent of the online population in 2013.

The report breaks down dynamics by region, but here's the overall summary picture in 2013:

Global Net population