In 2024, 93% of people aged 16-74 in the EU reported that they had used the internet during the previous 3 months. Internet use has grown consistently in the EU, with the share of users increasing by 7 percentage points (pp), up from 86% in 2019.
The internet was used mainly to communicate with others – 85% of people used the internet for telephoning, video calls, or instant messaging, and 80% for e-mails. Internet usage for communication has increased, with online calling and messaging growing faster than e-mail correspondence (+14 pp and +7 pp compared with 2019, respectively).
This information comes from data on use of ICT in households and by person published by Eurostat today. The article presents a handful of findings from the more detailed Statistics Explained article on digital economy and society statistics - households and individuals.
Other popular activities reported were finding information about goods and services (75%), watching TV or videos (73%) and internet banking (67%).
Source dataset: isoc_ci_ac_i
In contrast, only 10% of people used internet for online consultations or voting to define civic or political issues, 12% used it for learning activities in formal education, 16% expressed an opinion on civic or political issues on websites or in social media, 17% did an online course and 17% took part in learning for private purposes.
Source: Eurostat, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/product?code=ddn-20241217-1
