Nearly 25% Of 16-74 Year-Olds In EU27 Have Never Used The Internet

It seems today that with the prevalence of the internet that just about everyone in a developed country has used the web. A recent survey conducted by Eurostat (PDF) of the EU27 countries has found that a surprisingly high percentage of people aged 16 to 74 have never used the internet. According to the study in 2011, 24% of people of the age range have never used the web.

That number is large, but it is down significantly from the 42% that had never used the web in 2006. The number of homes in the EU27 that have internet access varies in each country from a low of 45% in Bulgaria to a high of 94% in the Netherlands. Other low scoring countries included Romania at 47% and Greece at 50%. In the UK 83% have internet access with broadband.

The study also found that online e-commerce shopping was most common in the UK at 82% of web users having bought online in the last 12 months, Denmark and Germany both had 77% of web users shopping online and in Sweden, the percentage was 75%. The country with the highest percentage of people that have never used the web is Romania with 54% and the lowest is in Sweden at 5%.