Close to half of Europeans use the internet every day but one third have never used the web, according to a new report (PDF) published by the European Commission. The study, which took a deep dive into the digital landscape in Europe over the last five years, demonstrated that new technologies are spreading fast across the continent but deep divisions remain and that particularly the elder and unemployed remain largely unaware of the existence of websites such as TechCrunch and FAILblog.org.
The commission’s study showed that 56 percent of Europeans had become regular Internet users by 2008, a jump of one third since 2004. Forty three percent of those EU citizens currently use the web every day, while 75 percent use it regularly (“at least once a week”) compared to only 43 percent in 2005. Half of all households and more than 80 percent of businesses had a broadband connection last year and with 114 million subscribers the EU is in fact the largest world market for fixed broadband access.
The biggest increases in internet use were visible in Ireland, the Czech Republic, France, Hungary, Latvia and Lithuania. Italy, Cyprus, Romania and Portugal lagged far behind in a what the report called a “source of concern.” Low usage rates in these and other countries like Bulgaria, Slovenia, Slovakia and Spain are primarily seen among low-income families, the elderly (65 to 74), unemployed and EU citizens with low levels of education.
The commission’s report also highlighted the rise of so-called “digital natives” (aged 16 to 24) as the most active and creative internet users. Nearly 70 percent of people under the age of 24 use the internet every day – compared to the EU average of 43 percent – and this group regularly uses advanced services to create and share online content (double the European average).
(Via @Benteka and EUbusiness)
Damn!! I never knew that.
damn, you beat me to the first comment
this was not my comment (i would of been first)
Wow ,this is a new revelation. One third is huge.How about the US
Wow, I wonder what the statistic is for Asia & Africa.
99%
The internet, in spirit, is largely American and embodies American values and of community and efficiency. Many people do not like these values and do not wish their existence to be influenced by them. You might look down on such people and consider them stupid but suppose you live in Monaco (and are mere store keeper) and you find that your life is so pleasing you do not want a computer in your life and you want your phone to only make phone calls and nothing else. Americans are able to understand this once they experience it but seem incapable to comprehend it in isolation. Please do not hate me for writing this, we in Europe have the right to our own existence free from your values – which you pass as universal.
I’m not whether Robin’s insularity or your condescension towards your co-continentals was the more chuckleworthy bit of writing here.
You can laugh at elitism but our way forward has historically been associated with it and we like that and we recognize it as more powerful than innovation.
Imho, it’s only about curiosity.
(internet = knowledge = cool!)
Just like how people started/stopped hating on mobile phones, it’s the usual habit vs change thingy. (just look at the “digital natives” bit!)
Also, it really sounds like in your mind a “mere” store keeper probably never reads the paper or a book. Yeah, what use does he have for this ? Actually he probably threw his phone away too !
Man he can just drive his truck to his furnisher where he buys his stuff.
Woah, you made me mad by using “we (in Europe)” when you actually meant “some of us”.
I didn’t really need to answer your comment at all but it did feel like you were including me in your description of peasants who’re afraid of progress.
Vive Le Roi,
No, all of us have that right but some of us choose not to exercise it. My example illustrates my point of view – usually dismissal is best done after the actual experience because i might not actually be malicious or more limited.
I don’t think ive ever read so much BS.
What you on about?
Don’t feed the Troll.
Perhaps I’m reading this incorrectly or my thinking is mis guided. But how can 75% of EU citizens use the web regularly but a third (33%) have never used the web?
It’s 75 percent of the 56 percent of Europeans that are considered ‘regular Internet users’.
Actually no, according to the article, it’s “Forty three percent of EU citizens currently use the web every day, while 75 percent use it regularly (”at least once a week”)”, so the sentence means that 75% of EU citizens use the web at least once a week, while 33% have never ever used it.
Now the answer is probably that the sentence is wrong and it is as you suggest, but as far as the article is concerned, 118% of EU citizens have either never used internet or use it at least once a week.
108% of course, sorry
Agreed about the bad phrasing, should be clearer now. thx.
Great difference between western and eastern europe here i guess.. got any numbers for that?
Yeah, I’m wondering what kind of ‘Europe’ they are talking about. You cannot compare the old and Western Europe with the newly Europeanized countries.
That’s like putting the whole American continent into one pot. I’d say the internet usage in the U.S. is much different to, let’s say, the internet usage in Peru.
Math tip: 1/3 is different from 1/2
what’s funny in any case is the very small number of people that are in between regular internet users (56%) and “what be this strange thing?” (33%)
That leaves only 11% of people who have ever used internet without being regular users. Very small.
But then there are also those 25% of 56%, that is 14% of the total, who are “regular users” but who don’t connect to internet “at least once a week”, leaving one to wonder if “once a year” is regular usage (well, it’s pretty regular, every 1st of january, I check my mails for 5 minutes…
)
Either they are in fact not what we would usually call “regular users”, or it seems like almost everyone who has ever used internet has become a regular user very quickly (5 out of 6 people who have gone ONCE on internet are regular users)
i wonder what is the age breakdown and if it has any role to this. Urop is an ooooooold bitch
111 pages?
So, a proportion of Europeans Union citizens are offline. But guess what proportion of them have health insurance and can change jobs whenever they like with no impact on health insurance? Just about all.
The proportion who are grossly, morbidly obese from too much time online? Not so many.
The commission likes to ensure a level playing field across Europe, with equality of opportunity and access. In America this sort of thing is considered socialism, and by definition a bad thing. Except when accepting stimulus money.
yea go Europe!
Uh oh,
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/08/broadband-is-this-generations-highway-system-fcc-director-says/
SOCIALISM IN AMERICA!!!
These figures are no real surprise.
Europe is not one huge, equally capable Internet space.
There is a distinct link between the wealth of EU countries, level of urbanization, income and demographics in relation to Internet uptake and frequency of use.
1) The eastern European (new EU) countries tend to have lower per capita income, high rural populations who are more likely to be poorly serviced with internet capacity, computers and smart phones.
2) Europe has an aging population (the 16 – 44 group is above the EU internet usage average ) the larger aging population is well below the average.
3) The pensioned, unemployed and reduced income citizens have tended to draw back on their Internet uptake and use. It has become comparatively “expensive” for them and a higher proportion of their monthly income. (Good anecdotal evidence exists of spend controls being put in place by parents on children s mobile use, online subscriptions etc )
4) Older populations tend to use the Internet for very specific purposes (email, etc) that tend to compliment not replace their traditional channels of activity (retail, health, entertainment, e-gov, banking etc)
5) Japan is probably a good model for Europe to watch to watch as to the penetration and use of internet technology in a rapidly aging population. The US population will continue to remain relatively “young” longer than Europe or Japan or China.
6) In relation to Asia and Africa: Wireless not fixed line broadband will be the key to uptake and use. Again highly concentrated good services in Urban areas, relatively poor and comparatively expensive in rural areas. Brazil is a good model to look for many developing countries (Highly dependent on Urban, middle class, high middle income uptake, poor rural uptake).
7) We tend to get more bang for our currency unit (buck if you wish). European broadband tends to be of a higher capacity and quality than most in the US.
Just shows that the old Bitch can still tap dance
this is shocking !
No new data for the use. This is what I found:
http://www.pewinternet.org/~/media/Files/Presentations/2006/Fox_UNC_June_20061.pdf
22% of Americans in 2006
The europeans can’t be that far behind.
peter
maybe thats why europe has been left behind by the rest of the world. and yet the british government cedes more and more power to brussels and we are left with the kind of people you elect making rules for us!
a socialist government and a europe that apparently thinks innovation is bad. wheres a brick wall to bang your head against when you need one!
well, actually, about being left behind, in continental Europe, you generally pay about $40 a month for an unlimited broadband connection that includes:
)
- unlimited (REALLY unlimited, not the false UK or US unlimited) downloads and uploads,
- a speed of 20 to 30Mbps (compared to 2 to 3 in many places in the US for that kind of price) (and yes that’s the real speed)
- free phone to about 70 countries in the world
- about 100 TV channels (and possibility to of course subscribe to lots more for lots of money
- oh, and that’s negligible, but you don’t pay for the connexion equipment
Talk about being left behind. Only Japan does better, and in only one respect, raw speed, and that’s useless because the allowed uploads/downloads are such that at full speed you have only one hour or so every month before reaching your quota.
Get your facts.
you seem to be english, can you tell us how much you pay for your net, and what you get for it?
I mean, what you REALLY get for it, not the theoretical speed nor the theoretical “unlimited” that everyone knows are bullshit in the UK, which is NOT the case in the rest of Europe (no throttling, and the speeds are not the capacity of your line, but what the provider’s pipes can really give YOU, even at peak time)
Just to understand how much better UK is with its own love of innovation
I hardly think that knowledge of the existence of Tech Crunch should be a gauge of internet literacy. I would guess that somewhere around 90+% of Americans have never heard of Tech Crunch either.
Hah, this has to be the most ridiculous article ever…
“he elder and unemployed remain largely unaware of the existence of websites such as TechCrunch and FAILblog.org.”
It’s apparently shocking that my 90 year old grandmother is not reading failblog on a daily basis?
… Better ship her over to the US for some real web training
I use web everyday but never heard about failblog.org until today. What’s so important about that website – the design is horrible.
A said refection of the eduction system.
Maybe it’s me, but I don’t think these numbers are bad. In fact, as a continent this seems quite good.
“elder and unemployed remain largely unaware of the existence of websites such as TechCrunch and FAILblog.org”
Great examples. ROFL
In France with have “Boxes” with quadruple play offer :
For 40 euros per month you get :
20 megas broadband + more than 120 TV channels (with HD) + Hard Drive recorder + National and international unlimited calls + 2 hours of Celular calls.
That’s very cool !
If this study mixes all the European countries, that’s stupid, the difference between west and east is big.
That explains why at least 33% of them aren’t obese.
Wow that is so surprising with britain being a huge market imagibe if those 33 percent did use it would the out beat usa and china??
Hilarious that we have a whiny little Englishman complaining about Brussels and spouting complete rubbish:
“maybe that’s why Europe has been left behind by the rest of world”
Rrrright.
Reminder: Britain applied REPEATEDLY to join the EU and your parliament which you elected has signed up to European laws over and over again. If you don’t like it LEAVE.
i was just thinking about something like this actually after reading the posts from carr and arrington on the new media models, and i’ve read on some other websites that tc is mainstream (i was thinking about how news is dead and emerging in new formats and how msm outlets are not doing themselves a service) and thought about how i live in the larget city in my country and lol that not a lot of people…not even anywhere close to 1/4 of them know what TC is, but i bet if you ask them about FB they do because we’re one of the FB capitals of the world. i mean mainstream is relative to everyone. i don’t know what is going on in europe although i can probably imagine…but i can tell you that more than 1/2 of people in my country don’t know what TC is or failblog even. people use the intenet yeah, but they don’t use the internet for instant how i or you use the internet. what surprises me is that my cousins back home in africa probably know more about/use the internet (even with their limited connections, but the mobiles are really popular there) and might know tc or failblog more than the people i know here in a western country and a large city. it’s just people’s behaviours. i’ve known about tc for a couple of years, i’ve read about it…just like i knew about 4chan for a long time, but i’ve just actually found my way onto this website maybe a month ago, and it was all because i clicked on a link. lol. i can know about something limitedly and not visit that website just because. what was included in the questionnaire/survey.
The statistics are an indicator of how addictive the web is.
Basically, if you use it once you use it always.
In other words… 1/3 of Europe are Arabs
wtf, lol, you rock
i’ve found interesting data at page 68: internet sites per country