The share of households in Romania that had home Internet access this year is 85.7% of the total, an increase of 3.6% compared to 2022, according to data published by the National Institute of Statistics (INS) on Friday.
According to official statistics, the share of people aged between 16 and 74 who have ever used the Internet was 92.5%, by 2.8% more year-on-year.
In 2023, among the households in Romania, 85.7% had home Internet access, and in the urban environment 89.8% of the households are connected to the Internet, by 9.5% percentage above the share of 80.3 % of rural households.
By region, Internet connection was more widespread among the households in the Bucharest-Ilfov region (92.9%), followed by the North-Western region (89.1%) and Western (87.7%) region. At the opposite side of the scale, with the lowest weights, are the South-Eastern (81.7%) and the South-Muntenia (82.9%) regions.
According to the INS, the number of people in households is an important influencing factor, in terms of connection to the Internet, so that, compared to 2022, in the current year, an increase of 8.4% was recorded in the share of households with home Internet access among households made up of a single person, 2.5% in the case of those made up of two people and 1.3% in the case of those made of three or more people.
Of the total number of people aged between 16 and 74 years old, the share of people who use or have ever used the Internet was 92.5%, an increase of 2.8% compared to the previous year, of which 96.4% have used the Internet in the last three months. Depending on the frequency of Internet use, 70.4% of the people in this age segment used the Internet several times a day, and 21.6% once a day or almost every day.
By development region, the highest share of people aged 16-74 who use or have ever used the Internet was 97.3% in the Bucharest-Ilfov region, followed by the Western region with 96.3%.
Official data reveal that, in 2023, the share of people who use or have ever used the Internet in the 16-34 age group was 98.6%, while for the 55-74 age group reached 81.4%.
At the level of the previous year, 88.9% of people in Romania, aged between 16 and 74, used the Internet in the last 12 months, 2.2 percentage points below the European Union (EU) average.
Also, among the 27 EU member states, in 15 countries the share of people in the 16-74 segment who used the Internet in the last year exceeded the European average, the highest share being recorded in Luxembourg (98.4 %), and the lowest in Croatia (82.9%). In Romania, there was an increase in the use of the Internet, in the last 12 months, among people aged 16-74, by 2.7%.
