The United States trails several countries in home Wi-Fi penetration, with South Korea and the United Kingdom leading the pack.
According to a report by Strategy Analytics this week, the penetration of Wi-Fi within U.S. homes is 61 percent, the firm said. That puts the United States eighth in the world, and far behind South Korea, whose ubiquitous broadband also means a corresponding bump in home Wi-Fi usage, at 80.3 percent.
By the end of 2011, 439 million households worldwide had installed home Wi-Fi networks, or 25 percent. By 2016, that number will swell to nearly 800 million, Strategy Analytics predicted, or 42 percent of all homes worldwide.
However, the firm looked past the Western countries to China, which already has the highest number of Wi-Fi-equipped homes in the world. But the country's vast population means that China's Wi-Fi penetration is just 21.8 percent, or fifteenth among the world's nations. Not surprisingly, that number is expected to increase as more Chinese add home routers.
"Developed broadband markets are currently the leading countries in terms of Wi-Fi household penetration," said Jai Wu, the senior analyst for connected home devices for Strategy Analytics. "However, because of its population size, China already has the highest number of Wi-Fi households in the world, followed by USA and Japan."
By 2016, China will have added another 110 million Wi-Fi households, the firm estimated.
"As most broadband growth will come from Asia Pacific, the bulk of Wi-Fi household growth will also will take place in China, India and other emerging Asia Pacific countries," Kantideep Thota, an analyst for Strategy Analytics, added. "China alone will account for 31 percent of total Wi-Fi household growth over the next five years."
South Korea's 80.3 percent home Wi-Fi penetration topped the U.K., with 73.3 percent. Germany, France, and Japan finished third, fourth and fifth, with 71.7, 71.6, and 68.4 percent, respectively. Canada finished sixth with 67.8 percent penetration; Italy was seventh, with 61.8 percent. Following the U.S., Spain and Australia ranked ninth and tenth with 57.1 percent and 53.8 percent, respectively.
A recent study found that almost 70 percent of Android smartphone owners aren't connecting their phones to Wi-Fi. For more on that, see How to Connect Your Android Phone to Wi-Fi.
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