• by Chuck Martin , Staff Writer, July 25, 2016

The Internet of Things is a big deal, but not everywhere.

While ubiquitous in the United States, the Internet is not used by 4 billion people, more than half (53%) of the world’s population, based on new worldwide tabulation.

Almost two-thirds (64%) of households in the Americas are connected compared to half of households globally, according to the last report from the ITU (International Telecommunications Union).

Relating to the Internet of Things, the countries with the highest machine-to-machine penetration rates are highly industrialized, advanced economies, including the northern European countries of Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark.

Countries were rated based on the number of machine-to-machine subscriptions per 100 mobile cellular subscriptions. Sweden ranked first and the U.S. ranked seventh. Here, in order, are the countries leading in the Internet of Things, based on that rating:

1. Sweden
2. New Zealand
3. Norway
4. Finland
5. France
6. Denmark
7. United States
8. Ireland
9. Belgium
10. Bulgaria
11. Estonia
12. Italy
13. Slovakia
14. Spain
15. Luxembourg
16. South Africa
17. Germany
18. Korea
19. Czech Republic
20. Iceland

On the positive IoT front, more than two-thirds of the world’s population lives within an area covered by a mobile broadband network.

The more people who have mobile broadband, the more ability there will be to connect smart devices to them. And the more people who become connected, the more need and opportunity there will be for marketing and interacting with those consumers.

And by the end of this year, the number of mobile broadband subscriptions is projected to reach 4 billion. And that is a lot of connecting.

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The world of wearables will be discussed in detail at the coming MediaPost IoT Marketing Forum Aug. 3 in New York. Check out the agenda here.