The number of people online around the world will grow more than

The number of people online around the world will grow more than 45 percent to 2.2 billion users over the next five years, according to Forrester Research.

Asia is the biggest growth engine, and will account for 43 percent of the world’s online population by 2013, with 17 percent in China alone.

“While per capita online spending is likely to remain highest in North America, Western Europe, and the developed markets of Asia throughout the next five years, the shifting online population and growing spending power among Asian consumers means that Asian markets will represent a far greater percentage of the total in 2013 than they do today,” wrote Forrester Research Senior Analyst Zia Daniell Wigder.

China’s online population, already the largest in the world, will rise by nearly 11 percent each year over the next half decade, Forrester said. Other Asian countries with substantial online growth rates include India, Indonesia, Pakistan, and the Philippines. Growth rates in some of the more mature markets such as Japan and South Korea will rise by less than 2 percent each year.

The top five countries with the most Internet users in 2008 were the United States, followed by China Japan, Brazil and Germany, Forrester said. In 2013, China will be number one, followed by the United States, India, Japan and Brazil, the firm said.