Almost half of the world's population will have access to the internet by the end of the year, according to a UN body, Digital Spy reports.

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) predicts that 3.2 billion of the world's entire 7.2 billion population will be online in 2015.

Around 2 billion of those come from developing countries, while nations considered "least developed countries" such as Somalia and Nepal only make up 89 million.

The report also expects mobile subscriptions to shoot up worldwide from 738 million in 2000 to 7 billion this year.

In the US and Europe, 78 out of 100 people already use mobile broadband - in contrast, only 17.4% of Africa has access to mobile broadband.

"These new figures not only show the rapid technological progress made to date, but also help us identify those being left behind in the fast-evolving digital economy, as well as the areas where ICT investment is needed most," said Houlin Zhao, ITU secretary general.