How much digital information is there on Earth?

IDC has just published the results of the study on the amount of information coded in binary with two digits 1 and 0 of digital photos, video images, emails, web pages, online messages and calls. telephone, along with digital content all over our planet today.

The survey showed for the first time that current storage devices do not have enough space to store all that digital data and on average, each digital file has been reused at least three times.

Thereby, IDC also determined the total information volume of the world generated in 2006 is 161 billion gigabytes (161 exabytes). Equivalent to 12 piles of books are the same length as the distance from the earth to the sun. Or 3 million times the amount of information in all the printed books. To store 161 exabytes, more than 2 billion stylish iPods are needed on the market.

Previously, a similar study, conducted by Berkeley University scientists in 2003, showed that the total amount of information produced by the world was only 5 exabytes.

The researchers also calculated the types of data that have not been digitized such as analogue radio waves or printed documents in offices, but that is the original data that has never been copied. IDC's calculation includes digital content that has been recycled, such as digital TV files played on a small screen many times, so the result will be 40 exabytes.