A report issued by the UN's Broadband Commission for Digital Development, established by the International Telecommunications Union and UNESCO, has pegged Australia at 21st in the world when it comes to internet access, with 21 per cent of Australians not using the Internet in 2011.

Australia also came in at number 26th in the report when it comes to fixed broadband connections per head of population, trailing countries including the UK, the US, Canada and New Zealand.

The The State of Broadband 2012: Achieving Digital Inclusion for All report estimated that in 2011, there were 23.9 fixed broadband connections per 100 people in Australia. Top of the leaderboard was Liechtenstein, with 71.6 connections per 100 people. The UK had 32.7 connections, the US 28.7, Canada 32 and New Zealand 25.8.

Australia came in at 20 on the report's listing of mobile broadband connections per head of population, with 42.8 active mobile broadband subscriptions per 100 people.

Earlier this year an OECD report ranked Australia 21st out of 34 countries when it came to fixed broadband.

The Broadband Commission report also revealed that if current growth rates continue, the number of Chinese-speaking Internet users will overtake English-language users by 2015.