Scientists at the University of Southern California have calculated that 295 exabytes of data was stored in the world by 2007.
One exabyte is a billion gigabytes.
The survey covers the years between from 1986 to 2007, a period known as the "information revolution" as the world transitioned to a digital age.
As many as 60 analogue and digital technologies of the period including PCs, DVDs and books were taken into account by the scientists while carrying out the study. Scientists also considered floppy discs, x-ray films and microchips on credit cards.
The study reveals that 75% of stored information was in an analogue format in 2000, but by 2007, 94% of data was stored in digital format.
In a study published in Science Express, the global survey showed that during the period global computing capacity increased by 58% per year. About 1.9 zettabytes of information was broadcasted during the period, the study found.
From 2002 to 2007, the gap between people in the developed world who could communicate and those in the developing world grew eight times more information than nearly doubled.
Lead author of the study Martin Hilbert said, "This is the first study to quantify humankind’s ability to handle information and how it has changed in the last two decades."
The study also marks 2002 as the advent of the "digital age", the first year worldwide digital storage capacity crossed analogue capacity.
