In terms of user base and volume however, the Asia Pacific region posted the highest growth, from 389.6 million to 477.2 million, or a 22 percent growth with China leading the growth in the region, with 215.5 million subscribers.

The world Internet population has surged past 1 billion in the first 8 months of the year, a report said.

Internet monitoring and analysis firm ComScore in a report released Saturday said there are now about 1.1652 billion Internet users asof August 2009, compared to 960.2 million in August 2008, or a global growth of 4 percent.

The Middle East and Africa region posted the highest growth at 79 percent growing from 45.4 million to 81.2 million users. In terms of user base and volume however, the Asia Pacific region posted the highest growth, from 389.6 million to 477.2 million, or a 22 percent growth, ComScore reported.

Europe posted notable growth from 271.1 million to 325.6 million (20 percent) while Latin America grew from 70.3 million to 90.2 million (28 percent). North America posted an almost flat growth, from 183.8 million to 191 million or a mere 4 percent, the report also said.

As expected, China paced the growth in the Asia Pacific region, with 215.5 million subscribers, up 31 percent from 164.6 million last year.In terms of hours spent on the Internet, users in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Vietnam, led other Asian countries. Hong Kong averaged 25.6 hours er user, Singapore averaged 21.4 hours, while Vietnam averaged 19.6 hours, slightly ahead of Japan, which averaged 19.2 hours.

India has the lowest average of 11 hours per user, ComScore also said, below the regional average of 16.9 hours. But the Asia Pacific average is still below the global average of 22.4 hours, ComScore also reported.

Asia’s Internet users are also on the average slightly younger than counterparts in other regions, with 30 percent falling under the 15 to 24 age bracket, compared to the global average of 28 percent for the same age bracket.Entertainment sites are the top websites visited by Asia’s Internet users, with some 71.2 percent of all users visting the top entertainment sites.

South Korea, Singapore, and the Philippines posted the highest percentages in terms of entertainment reach.

TheComScore report further said youtube.com remains the top entertainment site for Asia. Social networking site Facebook meanwhile is the most popular socialnetworking site in Asia, the report futher said.