This information is expressed as a percentage and can therefore exceed 100% if the number of SIM cards in the country is higher than the actual human population.
For example, by this measure, Hong Kong has a mobile phone penetration rate of 291% – the highest in the world in 2021.
A more accurate way of measuring how many people in a particular country have a mobile phone is using the stat Unique Subscriber Penetration which is the total number of people in a country that own a mobile phone expressed as a percentage of the total population. This can therefore never be greater than 100%.
Which countries have the most mobile phone users?
As you would expect, countries with a very large population have the most mobile phone users. According to the World Population Review in 2022 the top eight countries in the list were:
China (1.6 billion)
India (1.28 billion)
Indonesia (386 million)
United States (327 million)
Brazil (284 million)
Russia (256 million)
Nigeria (167 million)
Bangladesh (166 million)
Business
Developers
Telecoms
Careers
Business
Developers
Telecoms
Company
Careers
Worlds Connected