Almost a third fewer women than men in the world's poorest countries are connected to the internet and the gap is set to widen, limiting access to life-changing opportunities, an anti-poverty group said on Tuesday.

A study by the One organization, co-founded by Irish rock star Bono to tackle extreme poverty, found 18 percent of men in the 48 least developed nations are online versus 12.5 percent of women, with a gender gap of 22.3 million or about 30 percent.

The analysis, released at Europe's biggest tech event, the Web Summit, forecast the digital gender divide would widen further by 2020 to about 32 percent when factoring in population growth and current internet trends, to a gap of 53.5 million.