Nine out of 10 people in Cyprus use internet at least once a week

Nine out of ten people in Cyprus use the internet at least once a week but its use decreases with age, according to an ad hoc survey carried out by Cystat.

The survey says that nine out of 10 individuals use the internet at least once a week. Internet use decreases with age: starting from 99.3% for the 16–24 age group, internet use drops to 72.8% for the 55–74 age group. Persons with high educational attainment level use the internet more frequently (99.1%) than persons with low educational attainment level (65.2%).

The most popular internet activities by individuals during the first quarter of 2023 were instant messaging via Skype, Messenger, WhatsApp and Viber (95.9%), making calls over the internet (95.4%), participating in social networks like Facebook and Twitter (90.5%), reading online news sites/newspapers/news magazines (89.1%) and finding information about goods or services (89.1%).

A total of 14.8% of persons that used the internet in the first quarter of 2023, used online learning material other than a complete online course, 13.3% had an online course and 10.9% communicated with educators or learners using audio or video online tools.

During the period April 2022 - March 2023, 50.1% of individuals aged 16-74 obtained information online, 43.3% accessed information stored about them by public authorities or public services and 24.9% accessed information from public databases or registers.

The proportion of individuals aged 16-74 years old placing online orders during the first quarter of 2023 increased significantly to 55.3% compared to 37.0% in the corresponding period of 2022.

The most popular categories of goods/services ordered online were the following: clothes (including sport clothing), shoes or accessories (82.3%), deliveries or pick up from restaurants, fast-food chains (81.7%), food or beverages from stores or from meal-kits providers (41.4%) and sports goods (excluding sport clothing) (24.5%).

Among the people who bought or ordered goods or services for private use in the first quarter of 2023, 86.6% preferred sellers from Cyprus, 80.7% bought from sellers from other EU member countries and 47.2% from sellers from the rest of the world.