Opera Mini now has 41.7 million global users, with emerging nations especially drawn to the software.  The mobile Web browser is the most popular in the following nations:  Russia, Indonesia, India, China, Ukraine, South Africa, United States, United Kingdom, Vietnam and Poland.

Mobile Web use has skyrocketed as more consumers purchase smartphones that are often times tied to a data plan.  In Africa, the use of mobile phones remains one of the few ways citizens are able to access the Internet.  The continent now has more than 400 million active mobile phone subscribers.

Data gathered by Opera:

Growth rates in Africa: Ghana and Kenya lead the top 10 African countries in terms of page-view growth (4,348.6% and 615.4%, respectively). Ghana and Ivory Coast lead the top 10 African countries in growth of unique users (1,558.8% and 330.2%, respectively). Kenya leads the top 10 African countries in page views, witha each user browsing 525 pages on average each month.

The Opera report indicates the number of unique visitors in Africa has grown 171%, with page views up 374%, and data transfers up 183%.  The most visited site among African Internet, according to research numbers, is Facebook.  Gmail, Hotmail, and Twitter also are popular Web destinations.

Opera looks forward to a busy 2010, with the company recently making its Opera 10.5 pre-alpha available -- the early edition is significantly faster than Google Chrome and other browsers, as Opera continues to battle against Google, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, and other Web browsers.