Image: © Drobot Dean/Stock.adobe.com
According to Maureen Delamere of the CSO, the ‘everyday lives’ of people in Ireland are nevertheless becoming more online and reliant on technology than ever.
Latest data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) shows that there has been a slight drop in the percentage of people in Ireland who say they are always online.
Around 39pc of respondents said they use the internet either all the time or nearly all the time. This is a small drop from the 43pc who said they were practically constantly online last year.
Overall, the number of households that have internet access has remained the same at 94pc.
While just over 80pc of households with only one adult and no children had access to the internet, all households that had two adults and children had access to the internet.
The CSO releases data on internet usage and coverage in Ireland every year.
Maureen Delamere, a statistician in the body’s social analysis division, said that the “everyday lives” of people in Ireland are becoming more online and reliant on technology “than ever”.
“At an overall level, more than nine in 10 persons aged 16 years and older were recent users of the internet (had used it within the three months prior to survey), unchanged from 2022. Daily internet usage also remained unchanged from when the survey was last carried out,” she said.
“Of recent internet users, 94pc went online every day or almost every day. Just 7pc of people aged 16 years and older had never used the internet, although this predominantly related to older people where 42pc of persons aged 75 and over had never used the internet.”
Students most frequent users
Unsurprisingly, internet usage among older people in Ireland was the least. A little more than half of people aged 75 and above had used the internet within the previous three months, Delamere said of the figures published today (24 November).
“Of these, seven in 10 used the internet daily, with two-fifths of these daily internet users going online only briefly during the day,” she added.
In terms of the source of internet connections, only 31pc of households use mobile broadband, while 86pc of households use fixed broadband networks.
Among younger people living in Ireland, aged between 16 and 29, 21pc said they use the internet all the time, while 31pc said they use it “nearly” all the time.
“More than half of younger persons aged 16 to 29 years used the internet almost constantly. Students were the most frequent users of the internet in 2023. All students used the internet every day or almost every day,” Delamere went on.
“Of these daily internet users, almost all went online at least several times a day: 33pc used the internet several times a day, a further 41pc of students used the internet nearly all the time and almost one-quarter used the internet all the time.”
Of the households that had no access to the internet, Delamere said the most common reason cited was that they did not need the internet. This was followed by lack of skills or knowledge. Around 6pc of respondents stated that broadband internet was not available in their area.
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