Daily internet users in 2020

As digital technology becomes more and more widespread, internet use is continuing to grow throughout the European Union. According to the most recent Eurostat figures, in 2020 four fifths of all adults in the EU used the internet on a daily basis, with internet use defined as all use of the internet at home, work or anywhere else, across all devices (computer, smartphone, tablet or other) and covering all types of connections. Yet, while at least half of the adult population in every EU region made daily use of the internet in 2020, a clear geographical division is evident, with southern and eastern EU regions generally demonstrating lower levels of daily use than northern or western regions, as shown on the above map.
As highlighted by Eurostat’s 2021 regional yearbook, the three regions with the largest share of adults using the internet on a daily basis – Hovedstaden, Helsinki-Uusimaa and Stockholm – are not only located in Scandinavia but are also all capital regions, with other largely urban regions in many Member States witnessing particularly high levels of daily internet use among adults.
Conversely, some of the lowest levels of daily internet use were recorded in predominantly rural areas of Bulgaria and Romania, but also in parts of Ireland. The report suggests that there is not only a geographical split when it comes to daily internet use, between the north and west of Europe on the one hand, and southern and eastern EU Member States on the other, but also between the EU’s urban and rural regions. This also explains the relatively low rates of daily internet use across many regions of France, with many of the regions in question predominantly rural areas.
The situation of the EU’s outermost regions is particularly revealing; two of France’s five outermost regions, Guadeloupe and La Réunion, are included on the list of 10 EU regions with the lowest daily internet use among adults, with the latter registering the lowest level in the whole EU. Only one outermost region – the Azores – exceeds the EU average of 80 %.