MidEast Internet: Estimated Installed Base of Internet Users

Estimated Installed Base of Internet Users / Middle East

Internet Users in Arab Countries, as per 2002 statistics.

Rank	Country	Population	Internet Users	Percent
1	Saudi Arabia	23,500,000	1,600,000	6.81
2	Egypt	71,000,000	1,500,000	2.11
3	United Arab Emirates	3,250,000	900,000	27.69
4	Morocco	31,000,000	510,000	1.65
5	Algeria	31,500,000	500,000	1.59
6	Lebanon	4,100,000	460,000	11.22
7	Tunisia	10,000,000	460,000	4.60
8	Jordan	5,300,000	320,000	6.04
9	Kuwait	2,300,000	305,000	9.91
10	Syria	19,000,000	200,000	1.05
11	Bahrein	680,000	150,000	22.06
12	Oman	2,700,000	150,000	5.56
13	Libya	5,300,000	125,000	2.36
14	Palestine	3,400,000	103,000	3.03
15	Sudan	34,000,000	70,000	0.21
16	Qatar	790,000	60,000	7.59
17	Yemen	19,100,000	40,000	0.21
18	Iraq	24,100,000	25,000	0.10

Source: FILAD Corporation Market Research Middle East 2002

Thanks to Wolfgang Khalid Al Said Lingott of Ion Media for passing on the information.

Country	ISPs	Population (Million)	Teledensity	Internet Users per 1000	Installed Base of Users
Algeria	1	30.8	5	0.1	3,080
Bahrain	1	0.6	25	50	30,000
Djibouti	1	0.6	5	0.1	60
Egypt	18	63.0	5	0.1	6,300
Jordan	6	6.5	7	0.1	650
Kuwait	2	1.8	25	50	90,000
Lebanon	8	3.3	10	10	33,000
Morocco	30	27.8	5	0.1	2,780
Oman	1	2.5	25	50	125,000
Palestine	5	3.5	5	0.1	350
Qatar	1	0.6	25	50	30,000
Saudi Arabia	12	21.0	12	10	210,000
Tunisia	4	0.2	5	0.1	921
U.A.E.	1	2.4	35	50	120,000
Yemen	1	17.4	2	0.1	1,740
Total/Average		191.0	13	18.5	653,880

Source: CommsMEA Vol 9 No. 10 (October 1999)

Internet Users in Arab World - March 2000

Country	Number of Subscribers	Number of Users per Account	Total Number of Users
UAE	160,000	2.5	400,000
Saudi Arabia	100,000	3	300,000
Bahrain	15,000	2.5	37,500
Libya	1,500	5	7,500
Sudan	2,000	5	10,000
Qatar	18,000	2.5	45,000
Oman	20,000	2.5	50,000
Kuwait	40,000	2.5	100,000
Egypt	55,000	8	440,000
Yemen	3,000	4	12,000
Lebanon	65,000	3.5	227,500
Syria	4,000	5	20,000
Jordan	25,000	3.5	87,500
Morocco	15,000	3.5	52,500
Tunisia	22,000	5	110,000
Total	545,500	3.5 (total average)	1,899,500

Source: DITnet news article and the table.

Internet Users in the Arab World - 1998 vs. 1999

Rank	Country	Number of Subscribers		Number of Users	4 Month's Growth
		December 1998	April 1999	April 1999	Dec 1999 to Apr 1999
1	United Arab Emirates	61,200	81,700	204,300	33.5%
2	Lebanon and Syria	30,700	52,900	132,200	72.3%
3	Egypt	36,400	51,800	207,200	42.3%
4	Saudi Arabia	18,700	45,000	112,500	140.6%
5	Kuwait	22,000	25,100	62,800	14.1%
6	Jordan	16,600	20,100	50,300	21.1%
7	Oman	12,700	16,000	40,000	26.0%
8	Tunisia	4,700	6,000	15,000	27.7%
9	Morocco	11,200	14,100	32,500	25.9%
10	Bahrain	11,700	13,000	32,500	11.1%
11	Qatar	8,500	11,000	27,500	29.4%
12	Yemen	2,200	2,500	6,300	13.6%
Total		236,000	338,200	923,100

Source: Internet Al Alam Al Arabi (Arabic Language Edition), July 1999. Published by Dabbagh Information Technology (DIT).

Original comments:

1. Figures rounded to nearest 100. Margin for error +/- 5%
2. Thousands of Syrians subscribe to the Internet via Lebanon, but mostly for E-Mail due to the high cost of international calls.
3. The figure for Bahrain includes a number of subscribers from Saudi Arabia, prior to the service being available locally in the latter.
4. Subscriber vs. User: Subscriber means an Account (i.e. User ID and Password) with the ISP. A User is a real person using the internet, with more than one user share a single account. DIT points out that for most of the Arab countries, the ratio is about 2.5 users per account, with the exception of Egypt where it is 4 users per account.