The World Wide Web, often thought by many as one of the most life-changing inventions in human history, has now reached yet another admirable milestone in its short lifetime of just over two decades. Based on recent data polled by Web-analytics site Pingdom, the number of current Internet users worldwide has jumped from a mere 360 million at the end of 2000 to over 2.1 billion as of the end of 2011.

In other words, roughly 30-percent of the total global human population is now actively online and surfing the Web on a daily basis. In the eyes of many anthropologists, psychologists and other academia in the natural sciences, the need for information and hyper-connectivity is gradually becoming another necessity in the hierarchy of human psychological needs.

The geographical breakdown of Internet users is divided by continents, with Asia representing 922 million users, Europe representing 476 million and North America representing 271 million. In respect to particular countries, China comes out on top with 485 million users, or roughly 36-percent of its population.

Sweeping across the continents, Asia holds 922 million Internet users, Europe has 476 million, and North America is in third place with 271 million. Drilling down to individual countries, China is on top with 485 million people using the Internet, more than 36 percent of its 1.34 billion total population.

By the end of 2012, Web-based analytics site Pingdom suggests that the number of mobile broadband subscriptions is estimated to become 5.9 billion in a world with 6.988 billion people as of January 18, 2012. Of those 5.9 billion mobile broadband subscriptions, however, only 1.2 billion are actively in use. Then again, "for 2012, there's every reason to think that the Internet, by any measure, will keep growing," said Pingdom in a blog post. For better or worse, the Internet is now a critical component in almost everything we do."