Good news, everyone! This is the year that we’ll finally cross the threshold where the number of Internet of Things (IoT) devices exceeds the total population of humans on Earth. Research company Gartner forecasts that we’ll see 8.4 billion IoT devices in use in 2017, one for each of the 7.5 billion people currently inhabiting the planet (with almost a billion to spare).
This research reveals just how quickly the IoT is poised to grow. The 8.4 billion IoT devices predicted for this year amounts to a 31 percent rise compared to 2016. But we’re still just warming up—by 2020, the number of IoT devices will more than double, with Gartner predicting 20.4 billion IoT devices online. So unless these predictions fall well short of the mark, or there’s a sudden boom in human breeding, it looks like we’ll be outnumbered by our devices for the foreseeable future.