Internet users in Egypt reached approximately 22 million, a 30 per cent increase from last year's rate with an Internet penetration rate (percentage of the total population using the Internet) of 27 per cent, according to recent Information and Communications Technology (ICT) report.

Egypt leads the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region in terms of sheer number of Facebook users, with almost 12 million subscribed users of which mostly are youth.

In addition, Egypt ranks 21 globally in Facebook usage in 2011, according to the yearly ICT Use and Social Networks Adoption Report recently issued by the Madar Centre for Research and Development.

The MENA region had witnessed a dramatic growth in International Internet Bandwidth over the last year, with growth rates averaging 40 per cent.

Syria, who led the region in terms of growth, registered a sky-high 184 per cent shortly before political turmoil hit the country.

The report also indicated that mobile phone subscriptions registered this year showed the strongest growth rate among ICT indicators. Such subscriptions reached an 18.4 per cent growth rate with almost 83 million subscribers.

ICT infrastructure in the region witnessed drastic improvements, according to Madar, which means there is still much opportunity for Egypt and the MENA region to attain even more impressive growth rates in the upcoming years.