Irish internet users are less active on social media than their European counterparts, new data from Eurostat reveals.
The survey on information and communication technologies (ICT) usage in the EU27 Member States, as well as Norway, Croatia and Turkey, was mainly carried out in the first quarter of 2010 and looked at internet use and broadband connections, e-shopping, e-government, e-security and advanced communication and content-related services.
It found that while 80pc of 16-to-24-year-olds in the EU27 posted messages to chat sites, blogs and social networking, just 64pc of the same age group in Ireland did so. In the 25-to-54 age group, the equivalent figures were 42pc in the EU27 and 33pc in Ireland, while they dropped to 18pc and 8pc respectively for the 55-to-74 age bracket.
Interestingly, 72pc of Irish households have internet access, compared with 70pc of EU27 homes. These figures were up from 50pc and 49pc, respectively, in 2006.
Ireland was slightly behind in the broadband stakes with 58pc of households being connected, compared with the EU27 average of 61pc. However, Irish broadband connection leapt from 13pc in 2006, when the EU average was 58pc.
The level of internet access increased in all Member States between 2006 and 2010, most notably in Romania where it tripled, and in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary and Slovakia, where it doubled or almost doubled. In 2010, the highest shares of internet access were recorded in the Netherlands (91pc), Luxembourg (90pc), Sweden (88pc) and Denmark (86pc), and the lowest in Bulgaria (33pc), Romania (42pc) and Greece (46pc).
The proportion of households with a broadband connection also rose in every Member State in 2010 compared with 2006. Sweden (83pc) registered the highest share of broadband connections in 2010, followed by Denmark (80pc), Finland (76pc) and Germany (75pc), while Romania (23pc), Bulgaria (26pc) and Greece (41pc) had the lowest.
In 2010, the level of internet access for households with children in the EU27 was significantly higher than for households without children (84pc compared with 65pc). This was the case in all Member States. The shares for households with children ranged from 50pc in Romania to 99pc in the Netherlands and Finland. In 12 Member States the share was 90pc or more for households with children. In Ireland, the figures were 84pc for households with children, and 64 for households without.
Article courtesy of Businessandleadership.com
