Three in four people worldwide now have mobile phones

Three quarters of the world's population now has access to a mobile phone, a new report by the World Bank has shown.

There are now over six billion mobile subscriptions worldwide, with this number soon to overtake the world's population. This figure shows a massive increase in recent years, with less than one billion subscriptions in the year 2000.

It is the developing world that is behind the sharp increase. In 2010 developing countries accounted for 77 per cent of mobile phone ownership, up from just 29 per cent in 2000.

The report also highlights the importance of downloadable apps - more than 30 billion mobile applications were downloaded in 2011 alone.

"With nearly five billion mobile phone subscriptions in developing countries, mobile communications offer major opportunities to advance human and economic development," said World Bank vice president for development Rachel Kyte.

The news comes as the digital mobile phone celebrates its 21st birthday, having replaced analogue mobile devices back in July 1991. Back then a Finnish operator called Radiolinja launched the first digital mobile phone service for consumers.