How much would it cost worldwide to lose the Internet for one day?

It’s hard to put a dollar sign on the role the Internet plays in our daily lives. Phone calls, texting, remote work, entertainment, travel, banking — getting online is a part of almost everything we do in 2023.

So it seems safe to say that if this backbone of modern life were to go down for a day, the cost would be tremendous. Data from security firm AtlasVPN estimates the economic impact of a single day without Internet at $43 billion globally.

Using a tool from NetBlocks, the data uses indicators from the U.S. Census, ITU, Eurostat and the World Bank. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the U.S. and China would be the hardest hit, bringing economic activity to a near halt. Other major global players would be slightly less impacted by an Internet outage, although manufacturing, consumer spending and business operations would incur major financial damage.

Here are the numbers on how much the top 10 most impacted countries would lose in this hypothetical scenario:

• U.S.: $11 billion
• China: $9.8 billion
• U.K.: $3.8 billion
• Japan: $2.7 billion
• Germany: $1.5 billion
• India: $1.4 billion
• South Korea: $1.2 billion
• France: $870 million
• Italy: $640 million
• Canada: $580 million