Eurostat (the statistical office of the EU) has released a report analysing internet usage and connectivity statistics for 2012 for the EU27 countries (the EU member states plus Croatia, FYR Macedonia, Iceland, Montenegro, Norway and Turkey).
The figures reveal that over 75% of EU27 households have internet access and more than 72% of households have broadband connectivity (up from 30% in 2006). The Netherlands top the internet access table, with 94% of households having internet access, closely followed by Luxembourg (93%) and Denmark and Sweden with 92%. Bulgaria is at the bottom of the table with 51%.
When it comes to broadband access, Sweden tops the list with 87% of households having broadband connections, followed by Denmark and Finland at 85%, Netherlands (83%) and Germany at 82%.
Emailing and finding information were the most popular online activities followed by: reading news online (61%), online banking (54%) and social media messaging (52%).
National differences
- Reading online news - Lithuania (92% of internet users) and Estonia (91%) had the highest percentages; France the lowest (38%).
- Internet banking - Finland was the leading Member State (91% of internet users)
- Posting messages to social media - Portugal had the largest share of internet users who posted messages to social media (75%); Germany (42%), France (40%) and the Czech Republic (35%) the lowest.
Source: Eurostat