How high is internet penetration in Ghana?
About seven in ten people. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) estimates that 72.2% of Ghanaians used the internet in 2024, and the World Bank republishes that figure. In 2010 it was 7.8%, so use grew more than nine times in fourteen years.
The same sources show the gaps. Mobile subscriptions run above one per person, but fixed broadband, the kind that reaches a home or school by cable, fibre or fixed wireless, is below one line per 100 people. Electricity reaches 91.9% of people, and only 82.6% in rural areas.
| People using the internet | 72.2% (2024) | 7.8% (2010) | Official |
| Mobile subscriptions per 100 people | 113.6 (2024) | 133.6 (2018) | Official |
| Fixed broadband subscriptions per 100 people | 0.66 (2024) | 0.20 (2010) | Official |
| People with electricity, whole country | 91.9% (2024) | 74.0% (2015) | Official |
| People with electricity, rural areas | 82.6% (2024) | 57.0% (2015) | Official |
| Mobile data subscriptions, operators | 28,698,390 (Dec 2025) | 26,218,982 (Jan 2025) | Official |
| WASSCE core maths, grades A1 to C6 | 48.7% (2025) | 66.9% (2024) | Reported |
Source: ITU and ESMAP data republished by the World Bank; Ghana National Communications Authority (NCA) industry statistics; WAEC statement as reported by Ghana News Agency. Last checked 13 October 2026.
"Official" means we read it from the publisher. "Reported" means a news agency carried it.
Internet use in Ghana grew more than nine times in 14 years
View the data as a table
| Period | People using the internet |
|---|---|
| 2010 | 7.8% |
| 2011 | 9% |
| 2012 | 10.6% |
| 2013 | 15% |
| 2014 | 19% |
| 2015 | 23% |
| 2016 | 28% |
| 2017 | 37.9% |
| 2018 | 43% |
| 2019 | Not published |
| 2020 | 62.5% |
| 2021 | 68.6% |
| 2022 | 69.9% |
| 2023 | 70.7% |
| 2024 | 72.2% |
Source: ITU data republished by the World Bank, Individuals using the Internet (IT.NET.USER.ZS). Last checked 13 October 2026.
The published 2019 value (22.1%) sits between 43.0% in 2018 and 62.5% in 2020, which points to a break in the series, so we do not plot it.
Use went from 7.8% in 2010 to 28% in 2016 and 43% in 2018. By 2020 it stood at 62.5%. Since then growth has slowed: 68.6% in 2021, 69.9% in 2022, 70.7% in 2023 and 72.2% in 2024. The three years from 2021 to 2024 added 3.6 points, a small fraction of what the 2010s added.
There is a gap in the line, and it is deliberate. The published value for 2019 is 22.1%. It sits between 43.0% in 2018 and 62.5% in 2020, and a real internet population does not halve and then nearly triple within two years. That pattern points to a change in how the figure was estimated, though we have not found an explanation from the ITU. We treat 2019 as unreliable, leave it off the chart and draw no line across it.
The ITU counts someone as an internet user if they went online from any location in the last three months, on any device. The figure measures reach. It says nothing about how often, how fast or for what purpose.
Mobile subscriptions per 100 people fell, then recovered, and we have not confirmed why
View the data as a table
| Period | Mobile subscriptions per 100 people |
|---|---|
| 2010 | 68.4 per 100 people |
| 2011 | 81.1 per 100 people |
| 2012 | 95.8 per 100 people |
| 2013 | 102.3 per 100 people |
| 2014 | 108.3 per 100 people |
| 2015 | 122.0 per 100 people |
| 2016 | 130.5 per 100 people |
| 2017 | 122.5 per 100 people |
| 2018 | 133.6 per 100 people |
| 2019 | 130.7 per 100 people |
| 2020 | 126.9 per 100 people |
| 2021 | 124.4 per 100 people |
| 2022 | 120.8 per 100 people |
| 2023 | 98.8 per 100 people |
| 2024 | 113.6 per 100 people |
Source: ITU data republished by the World Bank, Mobile cellular subscriptions per 100 people (IT.CEL.SETS.P2). Last checked 13 October 2026.
Counts postpaid lines and prepaid accounts used in the last three months. SIM clean-ups and counting rules can move the figure; we have not confirmed the cause of the dip.
Ghana had 133.6 mobile subscriptions per 100 people in 2018. By 2023 the rate was 98.8, and in 2024 it climbed back to 113.6. The subscriptions behind those rates went from 40.9 million in 2018 to 33.4 million in 2023 and 39.1 million in 2024. A rate above 100 is possible because many people hold more than one SIM card.
A fall of that size is a flag, not a finding. The World Bank counts postpaid subscriptions and prepaid accounts that were used in the last three months. A clean-up of unused or unregistered SIM cards, or a change in how operators count active lines, can move the figure without anyone leaving the network. SIM registration exercises and counting rules are possible explanations. We have not confirmed that either caused the dip, and we found no official explanation, so please do not quote it as a story about people.
Mobile data, fixed broadband and 5G in Ghana: what the numbers say
For every 100 people in 2024, Ghana had 113.6 mobile subscriptions and 72.2 internet users, against 0.66 fixed broadband subscriptions. That is roughly 170 mobile subscriptions for each fixed line. On the same measure Kenya had 3.04 and South Africa 5.35 in 2024, so Ghana is lower than both.
Ghana's regulator, the NCA, publishes monthly industry tables. The one for 2025 shows mobile network operators with 28,698,390 data subscriptions in December 2025, up from 26,218,982 in January, a rise of about 9.5%. Fixed network operators had 175,458 in December, up from 115,375, about 52% more from a very small base. The table leaves out internet service providers.
A data subscription is a SIM or a line, not a person. The NCA reports "penetration" of 85.6% for all data subscriptions in December 2025, against a 2022 census population figure. That sits above the ITU figure of 72.2% for people because the two count different things. Neither is wrong.
What about 5G in Ghana? We looked for an official count of 5G subscribers or 5G coverage. The NCA table we read does not split subscriptions by technology, and we found no 5G figure in the sources we checked. So we cannot tell you how many Ghanaians use 5G, and we do not repeat press claims we could not check.
Electricity: a phone only helps if it can be charged
View the data as a table
| Item | 2015 | 2024 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whole country | 74% | 91.9% | +17.9% |
| Rural areas | 57% | 82.6% | +25.6% |
Source: SDG 7.1.1 electrification data (ESMAP) republished by the World Bank (EG.ELC.ACCS.ZS, EG.ELC.ACCS.RU.ZS). Last checked 13 October 2026.
Counts people with access, not hours of supply or power at a school. Rural values swing sharply before 2013, so the chart starts in 2015.
Electricity reached 91.9% of Ghanaians in 2024, and 82.6% of people in rural areas. In 2015 the figures were 74.0% and 57.0%. The rural gap to the national rate narrowed from 17 points to about 9. That is real progress, and it matters for any family that wants to charge a phone or a lamp for evening study.
The series counts people with access. It does not tell us whether the power stays on through a school day, or whether a given school is connected. The rural series also swings in the early 2010s, from 23.6% in 2012 to 50.8% in 2013, so we start in 2015.
Rural pupils were already behind in class. In the 2013 National Education Assessment, 27.1% of rural Primary 6 pupils were proficient in English, against 59.2% of urban pupils. Our learning gap in Ghana page sets out those figures. The tests are old.
Is there data on internet in schools?
No, not that we could find. The national indicators we hold cover households and individuals: who uses the internet, how many SIM cards exist, how many people have power. None of them reports how many schools have electricity, computers or an internet line. Our own register of schools records name, level, ownership and location, not connectivity. We also found no national school-level figure in the sources we read for this page.
That matters for any claim about online learning in Ghana. Without school-level data, such claims rest on person-level numbers, which describe homes and pockets rather than classrooms.
If you hold school connectivity figures, tell us through the corrections link at the foot of this page. We would publish them with the source and date, with your permission.
What happened to exam results over the same years?
View the data as a table
| Item | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Core mathematics | 61.4% | 62.2% | 66.9% | 48.7% |
| English language | 60.4% | 73.1% | 69.5% | 69% |
| Integrated science | 62.5% | 66.8% | 58.8% | 57.7% |
| Social studies | 71.5% | 76.8% | 71.5% | 55.8% |
Source: WAEC statement of 1 December 2025, as reported by Ghana News Agency. Last checked 13 October 2026.
Reported figures. We have not seen the statement on WAEC own site. Shown beside connectivity data for context only; no causal claim.
WAEC issued a statement on 1 December 2025 giving the share of WASSCE candidates with grades A1 to C6, a credit pass, in four core subjects for 2022 to 2025. We call these figures reported because the Ghana News Agency carried them. Core mathematics went from 61.4% in 2022 to 62.2% in 2023 and 66.9% in 2024, then dropped to 48.7% in 2025. In 2025 that meant 209,068 candidates with a credit in maths. English held near 69%.
Now lay the two sets of figures side by side. Internet use was 69.9% in 2022, 70.7% in 2023 and 72.2% in 2024, rising slowly. Maths credit passes rose from 2022 to 2024 and then fell sharply in 2025, a year for which the ITU figure is not yet published. The lines do not move together in any simple way. Even if they had, it would prove little, because pass rates move with many things these figures miss, such as who sat the paper and what happened in classrooms that year.
So this page makes no causal claim in either direction. We cannot say that the internet helped or hurt results. To test that, you would need a survey that asks the same students about their device use, their school and their grades. National figures like these come from operator records and household surveys, and PollsAfrica keeps a short guide to Ghana's household survey data for anyone who wants to see what the census and the main surveys cover.
The questions that matter are narrower than "is there internet?". Does a pupil have a device at the right moment, and a teacher or lesson that makes it useful? The public numbers cannot answer that. Our pages on WASSCE results statistics, teachers in Ghana and the WASSCE results page cover part of the classroom side.
Money is the other half of the question, since spending shapes what a school can buy. Our story on the education budget squeeze in Ghana looks at how spending and enrolment have moved. After school, universities and TVET in Ghana covers enrolment, and the girls and STEM story looks at who studies what. For regional detail, start from the regions index, Northern Region and education in northern Ghana.
For the wider picture, read Ghana education in numbers, browse the data hub or the education data resources, and see how we check figures on our methodology page. The exam portals page and the Academy are good next stops if you are preparing for an exam.
What we left out and why
District rankings. We found an unexplained collapse in some district ranks between two school years and held it back until the definition of the education index is confirmed in writing. The tables come from UNICEF Ghana and CDD-Ghana, not from the Ghana Education Service, and the education indicators they use differ between editions. Until we can tell a real change from a change in method, we will not publish it.
School connectivity and 5G. We found no national school-level figure and no official 5G count we could verify, so there is no chart for either. We would rather leave the gap visible.
Cross-country internet use. We have not checked that each country builds its figure the same way, so we compare only fixed broadband, and only the three countries above. We also did not link exam results to internet use by region, because we have no regional internet series.
Frequently asked questions
What is the internet penetration in Ghana?
The ITU estimates that 72.2% of Ghana's population used the internet in 2024. The World Bank republishes the figure. It was 7.8% in 2010. We leave out 2019 because the published value looks like a break in the series.
How many people in Ghana use mobile internet?
We do not have a count of people. The NCA reports 28,698,390 mobile data subscriptions in December 2025, but that counts SIMs and lines, not individuals, and one person can hold several.
Is 5G available in Ghana?
We could not confirm from the sources we read. The NCA table does not break subscriptions down by technology, and we found no official 5G subscriber or coverage figure to report.
Why did mobile subscriptions in Ghana fall between 2018 and 2023?
We have not confirmed why. The rate fell from 133.6 to 98.8 per 100 people, then rose to 113.6 in 2024. Clean-ups of SIM cards and counting rules can move this figure, but we found no official explanation.
Do Ghanaian students have internet at school?
We found no national figure for the share of schools with internet. Person-level data tells us about homes and individuals, not classrooms. If you hold school connectivity data, use the corrections link at the foot of the page.
Does more internet use improve exam results in Ghana?
The data cannot show that. We place internet use next to WASSCE results, and they do not move together in a simple way. Showing a link would take survey data on individual students.
Sources
- World Bank, Individuals using the Internet (% of population), IT.NET.USER.ZS (checked 13 October 2026)
- World Bank, Fixed broadband subscriptions (per 100 people), IT.NET.BBND.P2 (checked 13 October 2026)
- World Bank, Mobile cellular subscriptions (per 100 people), IT.CEL.SETS.P2 (checked 13 October 2026)
- World Bank, Access to electricity (% of population), EG.ELC.ACCS.ZS (checked 13 October 2026)
- World Bank, Access to electricity, rural (% of rural population), EG.ELC.ACCS.RU.ZS (checked 13 October 2026)
- International Telecommunication Union, ITU DataHub (checked 13 October 2026)
- National Communications Authority, Data subscription analysis, January to December 2025 (checked 13 October 2026)
- Ghana News Agency, WASSCE 2025: WAEC releases subject-by-subject performance trends (checked 13 October 2026)
- SchoolRegistry, The learning gap in Ghana (checked 13 October 2026)