

22% of European citizens do not use the internet - thomasbachem
http://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?dataset=isoc_ci_ifp_iu&lang=en

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tty
17.5% of EU's population is in the 65+ age bracket

[http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index....](http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index.php?title=File:Population_age_structure_by_major_age_groups,_1991_and_2011_\(%25_of_the_total_population\).png&filetimestamp=20130129113537)

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nsns
how many are illiterate children?

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gus_massa
I saw illiterate children using Youtube. If an adult (or link) open one of
their favorite song or cartoon, then they can jump to another videos for a
long time, using the thumbnail image (and sometimes a few words that they
understand)

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kamjam
Even my 18 month old niece can use the iPad to open YouTube, click around a
bit, or more likely go to the history and view her previously watched stuff
and navigate around that way.

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arbuge
I believe the number is around 20% overall for the USA.

In the 65+ age bracket, it's much higher - around 44%:

[http://www.nextgov.com/emerging-tech/2013/08/tackling-
greate...](http://www.nextgov.com/emerging-tech/2013/08/tackling-greatest-
digital-divide/68363/)

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goblin89
What constitutes Internet use in this research? Which part of the
infrastructure has to be involved for it to count? Those questions don't have
clear answers.

According to Methodological Manual, they were asking questions such as “When
did you last use the Internet?” during face-to-face and phone interviews.

They _did_ ask about using Internet and websites from mobile devices, in
addition to “computers”. However, I'm not sure if many non-technical users
would qualify updating an app (which may happen automatically), or performing
various in-app activities (also may happen automatically, like updating
weather forecast) as using the Internet.

So it seems to be more indicative of how many Europeans, of those who do agree
to phone or face-to-face interviews, deliberately access email or web sites.

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ezequiel-garzon
I agree. Here in Spain, even the oldest grandpas are using WhatsApp. Is that
using the Internet? Maybe they meant the web...

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jpswade
Only 10% of UK citizens have never used the Internet?

That's not what ons data says[1]

[1] [http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/rdit2/internet-access-
quarterl...](http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/rdit2/internet-access-quarterly-
update/2013-q1/stb-ia-q1-2013.html)

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bajsejohannes
To see the figure 22%, set "INDIC_IS" to "Internet use: never".

That's interesting. However, it might be more interesting with "Internet use:
in the last 3 months". That's at 74%, meaning 26% didn't use it the last 3
months.

Edit: It's also interesting to sort countries by usage. The poorer countries
are at around 50% internet usage. I'm surprised to see Italy way down there
with 56% usage (last 3 months).

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rsynnott
Italy has a very large elderly population.

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jonny2112
I find it interesting that Greece and Italy, both of whom are in a financial
crisis have some of the lowest internet uses rates it the EU. I wonder what
the correlation between the economic crisis and this is.

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MistahKoala
For a post-agrarian economy like Greece where ~half the population lives in
Athens? Probably quite weak.

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andridk
So 22% of European people still have relative privacy. I am a bit jealous.

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keithpeter
Is the 2400 baud modem and NC100 in a cabin in the mountains not available in
the US anymore?

That might sound flippant, what I mean is when you drill into the 22% you will
find it is people in remote areas with poor and expensive connectivity that
make up the majority of those who do not use the Internet. Age profile might
be an issue as well, although many older people are using the Web now to stay
in contact with family who have moved to the cities.

I'm actually considering dumping the landline and asdl over copper broadband
at home here in a large city in the UK. I get internet access at work, in the
local art centre and the local library (wifi) and can keep a pay as you go
mobile broadband dongle for emergency use at home. This isn't anything to do
with surveillance just that we are paying hundreds of pounds a year for a land
line that gets hardly any use for actual voice calls.

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sliverstorm
Almost noone I know still has a landline anymore. People usually go for cable
or standalone DSL that provides the landline for a small fee but does not bill
you for telephone service. Is that not an option there in the UK?

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keithpeter
Standalone DSL sounds great, but I suspect that won't exist in UK because of
the local loop belonging to OpenReach and them charging providers for access.
Will look around though.

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randyrand
In light of this does the United Nation's decision last year that Internet
Access should be a basic human right hold water considering that so many
freely choose to go without it? Here's the list for comparison:

[http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/](http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/)

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mnml_
22% of European don't use ATM machines and don't have a credit card ? I don't
think so.

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tty
I would think the percentage of people who don't use ATM machines and don't
have a credit card is likely higher than 22%, actually. Using only cash is
much more common in Europe than in the US.

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kalleboo
This is one of those areas where you can't really generalize over "Europe" at
all since it varies so much between countries. In Scandinavia, the Netherlands
and the UK, card usage is extremely high. In southern and eastern Europe, not
so much.

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tty
Decided to google some,

In all of EU, 40% of people have a credit card. You're right that it varies
greatly throughout the countries.

The highest credit card per capita rate is in Luxembourg, with around 3 per
capita (for comparison's sake, in the US it's 3.5 per capita, in most EU
countries at 1 per capita).

The highest ownership rate is in Luxembourg, with 87% of people having one.
The lowest is in Hungary, with only 9% of the people having a credit card.

Some other countries: Denmark 71%, Bulgaria 12%, Lithuania 16%, Romania 17%.
The rest of the EU countries can be seen here, on page 13

[http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_373_en.p...](http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_373_en.pdf)

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dagw
Yes, credit card use is relatively low, but everybody has and uses a debit
card.

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thomasbachem
See also [http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/sites/digital-
agenda/file...](http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/sites/digital-
agenda/files/scoreboard_life_online.pdf) (2012)

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Gonzih
Happy people :)

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djt
tthis is probably more illuminating
[http://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/submitViewTableActio...](http://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/submitViewTableAction.do)

% of people that have NEVER used the internet

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simias
I'm afraid your link is broken. Was there POST data involved?

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Nux
22% still have a life then.

