The chart below shows that since March 2001 the numbers of IP address have increased by only 11%, while computers have broadly sustained an increasing trend other than for a dip for Code Red and Nimda in 2001, rising by 106% in the same period. This primarily reflects increased use of HTTP 1.1 virtual hosting for shared hosting, and the continuing development and expansion of the web . Since 1999, IP addresses have increased by 103%, while web facing computers have increased by 355%.
42% of the increase in the past 6 months was in the Americas, with EMEA accounting for 34% of the growth. EMEA now accounts for 33% of the web facing servers, an increase of 5% since March 2001.
The methodology is described in the Hosting Provider Server Count.