AOL: A Worldview

America Online, the nation’s largest Internet service provider, said this week that it now has 18 million subscribers in the United States. How that fits in the global scheme of things:

* 18 million: Number of people who live in Australia.

* $8.83: Amount each AOL subscriber contributed to AOL Chief Executive Steve Case’s $159-million salary last year.

* 147 million: Number of people expected to go onto the Internet this year--more than the population of Japan.

* 67 million: Number of e-mail messages AOL handles a day.

* 475 million: Number of instant messages AOL ferries through its service each day.

* 5: Number of times AOL has altered its software to block instant messages sent to its subscribers from Microsoft’s competing MSN Messenger Service.