ComScore, a self-proclaimed leader in “measuring the digital world”, this week reported that the total global Internet audience surpassed 1 billion last month.

ComScore says it’s latest World Metrix report shows that China is the world’s fastest growing Internet market in spite of continuing government filtering of foreign content and suppression of dissenting voices. China tallied just over 179.7 million Internet users edging out the U.S. which came in at 163.3 million.

The Asia-PAcific region, as a while, accounted for more than 41 per cent of the total Internet audience. Europe came in second at 28 per cent and North America showed up a surprising third, at a little over 18 per cent.

“Surpassing one billion global users is a significant landmark in the history of the Internet,” said Magid Abraham, President and CEO of comScore, Inc. “It is a monument to the increasingly unified global community in which we live and reminds us that the world truly is becoming more flat. The second billion will be online before we know it and the third billion will arrive even faster than that, until we have a truly global network of interconnected people and ideas that transcend borders and cultural boundaries.”

A digest of the full World Metrix results is available at the comScore Web site.