Sub-Saharan Africa will remain the fastest growing region, with an additional 167 million subscribers over the period to 2025. This will take the total subscriber base to just over 600 million, representing around half the population. Nigeria and Ethiopia will record the fastest growth rates between now and 2025, at 19% and 11% respectively.

At the end of 2018, 2.8 billion people (two-thirds of the population) in Asia Pacific subscribed to mobile service, a number that will grow to 3.1 billion by 2025. This growth in connectivity is helping the mobile industry increase its impact across all the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, and is also making a significant contribution to the economy.

By the end of 2018, there were 185 million unique mobile subscribers in West Africa, an increase of nearly 10 million over the previous year. Future growth will largely be driven by young consumers owning a mobile phone for the first time; more than 40% of the sub-region’s population are under 18 years old. A considerable proportion will become young adults over the next decade.

Mobile technology is playing a pivotal role in the digital transformation of the Pacific Islands, providing access to life-enhancing services and acting as a catalyst for increasing productivity and efficiency. However, the region is seeing only modest mobile subscriber growth at a time when subscriber penetration rates remain well below regional and global averages. Although 38% of the population subscribed to a mobile service as at the end of 2018, this trails the average for least developed countries (44%).

China’s broad and diverse mobile ecosystem underpins the country’s digitisation strategy and is having a profound impact on consumers, businesses and wider society. With close to 1.2 billion subscribers, China is the largest mobile market globally. Particularly impressive is the rate of growth in mobile internet penetration, which reached 58% at year-end 2018.

The growth of the mobile industry has driven an unprecedented increase in digital inclusion in low- and middle-income countries. Since 2014, mobile operators have connected 700 million new subscribers and another billion have gained access to the internet through a mobile phone, many for the first time. Despite this growth, mobile ownership still remains far from universal, particularly for women. Women in low- and middle-income countries are 10 per cent less likely than men to own a mobile, and 23 per cent less likely to use mobile internet.

By the end of 2018, 5.1 billion people around the world subscribed to mobile services, accounting for 67% of the global population. Of the 710 million people expected to subscribe to mobile services for the first time over the next seven years, half will come from the Asia Pacific region and just under a quarter will come from Sub-Saharan Africa.

By mid-2018, there were 442 million unique mobile subscribers across Latin America and the Caribbean, accounting for 68% of the population.

Advanced MENA markets are at the forefront of innovation, with the GCC Arab States in particular looking to be global leaders in the deployment of 5G networks.

At the end of 2017, there were 232 million unique mobile subscribers in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), equating to a penetration rate of 80% of the population. The CIS region is relatively diverse, with the headline numbers masking markets at different stages of development.

As of year-end 2017, 85% of the European population – 465 million people – subscribed to mobile services. The total addressable market for the region’s mobile operators is approaching saturation point, with the larger mobile markets such as France and the UK accounting for the majority of new unique subscribers.

North America has always been a benchmark for fast migration to new mobile technologies, with the highest levels of mobile internet penetration, mobile broadband and smartphone adoption globally. Its mobile industry is now preparing for 5G, which will show the fastest rate of adoption globally, reaching half the region’s total mobile connections by 2025.

For many consumers across Sub-Saharan Africa, the mobile phone is not just a communication device but also the primary channel to get online, as well as a vital tool to access various life-enhancing services.

Asia Pacific has been the biggest contributor to global subscriber growth in recent years and still has room for growth. However, growth has reached its peak and has started to taper out. With some markets at the forefront of global innovation, yet others with millions of people still to take their first foray online, there is a growing need across the region to look beyond mobile adoption and towards migration to faster networks and increased usage of the mobile internet.

The millennial generation – born between 1980 and 2000 – is projected to reach 800 million people in mid- to high-income countries by 2020. This is larger than both Generation X (570 million) and the Baby Boomers (490 million). The impact on advanced economies will be felt from a shift in purchasing power, a redefinition of traditional life planning, asset ownership rates and – our focus here – technological adoption and reliance. Mobile internet will become the central platform of economic transaction and social interaction. Millennials are a driving force in the transition to digital economies as Boomers were in the shift to service-based economies in the 1970s and 1980s – only more so and at a faster rate.

Having surpassed 5 billion people connected to mobile services in 2017, the global mobile industry will reach further milestones over the next eight years. The number of unique mobile subscribers will reach 5.9 billion by 2025, equivalent to 71% of the world’s population. Growth will be driven by developing countries, particularly India, China, Pakistan, Indonesia and Bangladesh, as well as Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.

GSMA Intelligence is today releasing its latest publication outlining the growth story for mobile subscribers and mobile internet users to 2025