18/12/2020 16:17
In 2020, Ιnternet access in Cyprus’ households increased and reached 92.8% compared to 89.6% in 2019, according to data released Friday by the Statistical Service of Cyprus.
According to survey results on information and communication technologies in households and by individuals, 90.5% of persons aged 16-74 years old are using the internet at least once a week. All persons aged 16–24 years old (99.6%) use the internet at least once a week. This percentage decreases with age, even though for individuals aged 65–74 years old the use of internet increased to 56.8% in 2020 compared to 44.3% in 2019. Persons with high educational level (99.1%) use the internet more frequently than persons with low educational level (68.6%).
The most popular Internet activities are the following: telephone calls over the internet/video calls (via webcam) over the Internet (94.0%), use of instant messaging (92.4%), search of information about goods and services (86.2%), participation in social networks (86.1%), and watching video content from sharing services (84.2%).
A 20.6% of persons that used the Internet in the first quarter of 2020, did an online course, 18.4% used online learning material other than a complete online course and 17.1% communicated online with instructors or students.
e-Government
Compared to 2019, the percentage of persons who use the Internet for interaction with public authorities in 2020 increased from 50.3% to 53.3%. This is due to the increase of people using the Internet for submitting completed forms (from 33.9% to 39.9%). The percentage of people obtaining information from public authorities’ websites remained at the same levels while the percentage of downloading official forms slightly decreased (from 37.1% to 36.3%).
e-Commerce
The percentage of individuals 16-74 years old making online orders during the first quarter of the year decreased to 34.2% in 2020 compared to 36.2% in 2019.
The most popular categories of goods/services ordered online were the following: clothes, shoes or accessories (64.1%), deliveries or pick up from restaurants, fast-food chains (50.4%) and computers, tablets, mobile phones or accessories (36.1%).
Among the people that bought or ordered goods or services for private use in the first quarter of 2020, 65.8% prefer sellers from Cyprus, 60.3% bought from sellers from other EU countries and 49.9% from the rest of the world. 42.2% of these persons bought goods or services of value between 100-300 euro.