Internet usage in the European Union reaches 93%

Some 93% of citizens (aged 16-74) living in the European Union have used the internet in the past three months, an indication of how internet usage is now nearly ubiquitous across the bloc.

The share of internet users has risen by seven percentage points since 2019, when it stood at 86%, the Eurostat data showed.

Communication usage

In terms of how European citizens are using the internet, some 85% said that they are using it for telephoning, video calls, or instant messaging, which is up 14 percentage points on 2019.

In addition, the percentage using the internet to send emails now stands at 80%, which is up 7 percentage points on five years ago.

Other popular activities include finding information about goods and services (75%), watching TV or videos (73%) and internet banking (67%), Eurostat noted.

At the same time, just 10% of EU citizens use the internet for online consultations or voting on civic and political issues, and just 12% use it for formal education purposes. Slightly more have used the internet to take an online course (17%), or taking part in learning for private purposes, the data showed. Read more here.

Online shopping

A separate recent study by Eurostat revealed that the Netherlands has the highest percentage of online shoppers in the European Union, with 84.2% of people shopping online last year.

Other EU countries with high online shopping participation include Ireland (80.49%), Sweden (80.16%), Denmark (79.78%), Luxembourg (70.27%), and Czechia (69.07%). In contrast, Bulgaria had the lowest percentage of online shoppers, at 26.94%, followed by Romania at 31.72%, Italy at 39.19%, and Portugal at 43.95%. Read more here.

Read more: What European country has the highest percentage of internet usage?