Mapping the world’s 4.3 billion Internet addresses

How many IP addresses exist per person around the planet paints a picture of just how unevenly the Internet is distributed today.

Using IP addresses to judge the intensity of a population’s Internet experience is inexact. But, says Geoff Huston, chief scientist at the Asia-Pacific Information Center, which distributes IP addresses in that part of the world, "the number of addresses per capita shows a lot about the degree to which a nation is capable of capitalizing on an information economy." Home to the Internet’s invention, the United States is the world’s only member of the “Billion IP Address Club.” It is also a strong performer per capita, with five available IP addresses per person. Russia, meanwhile, under-represents with just one-third of an IP address per person; perhaps relatedly, Russian President Vladimir Putin has called the Internet "a CIA project." And China has one-quarter of an IP address for each of its 1.4 billion people. Meanwhile, with the fewest total IP addresses of any non-island nation, North Korea has one address for every 24,000 people.