DHAKA: The world’s most populous country also has the largest, and fastest growing, online population.

China has now surpassed 649 million users, outnumbering the entire US population two to one.

Official figures released Tuesday said, CNN publishes this report on Wednesday.

The China Internet Network Information Center’s (CNNIC) 35th ‘China Internet Development Statistics Report’, documents online usage in the country for 2014, and identified the staggering number of connected Chinese citizens.

The growth of mobile internet is largely credited for the increase, with 80% of users, 557 million, using smartphones and tablets to connect.

However, the rate of growth is slowing somewhat, the report said, with 31 million new users added in 2014 compared to 54 million in 2013.

The rate of growth in mobile users was significantly higher than the overall increase, with 57 million new mobile users logging on last year.

Despite the huge number and rapid growth of connectivity, the overall population size means that still a majority (52.1%) of Chinese have no access to the internet.

Rural users are heavily outnumbered by their urban counterparts.

After China, the US has the second largest number of internet users, with 280 million, followed by India (243 million) and Japan (109 million), according to data compiled by the World Bank and United Nations amongst others.

BDST: 1548 HRS, FEB 04, 2015