Study: Estonians among most active internet users in Europe

It appears from a Eurobarometer study that Estonian citizens are considerably more active users of the internet and of social networks than citizens of other European countries.

6In Estonia you can access wi-fi internet even in swamps0 percent of Estonian citizens used the internet daily or almost daily and 31 percent used social networks. In Europe the respective indicators were 48 percent in case of the internet and 20 percent in case of social networks.

The most frequent users of the internet are citizens of Iceland, of Sweden, of the Netherlands and of Denmark where 80 percent of the citizens do it daily or almost daily. Social networks are also used the most frequently in those countries, particularly in Iceland, where 54 percent of the citizens use social networks daily or almost daily.

The highest percentage of very high media consumption citizens live on Iceland (82 percent) and in Sweden (79 percent). Estonia is in the seventh place in terms of active media users. The percentage of very active media users is 53 percent and that of active ones 36 percent. The biggest number of low or very low media consumption citizens live in Portugal (54 percent) and Romania (53 percent).

Of media types European citizens prefer to view television, with 84 percent of Estonian citizens doing it daily or almost daily and 87 citizens of Europe doing it daily. Radio falls into the second place, with 67 percent of Estonian citizens and 51 percent European citizens listening to it daily or almost daily.

For the first time the Eurobarometer fall study of 2011 mapped viewing television via the internet. It is evident from the results that the most active viewers of television via the internet are citizens of Nordic countries, with 34 percent of Swedes watching television via the internet at least once a week, Icelanders 33 percent and Finns 29 percent.

In Estonia at least 17 percent of the citizens view television via the internet at least once a week. The result is similar to the European Union average where 16 percent of the citizens viewed television via the internet.

The study was carried out last year in the period from November 5 to 20 in 27 member countries of the European Union, in five candidate countries and in North Cyprus.

Baltic News Service