Press release 27/05/2010

INFORMATION SOCIETY SURVEY - FAMILIES 2010

52.3% of the population aged 15 and over uses Internet in the Basque Country in 2010

The number of people shopping online has risen by 33.6%

The number of Internet users aged over 15 in Basque Country stood at around 991,000 in the first quarter of 2010, which is 52.6% of the Basque population in this age bracket as a whole, according to data prepared by Eustat. This percentage was up by 4.3% compared to 2009.

By province, the increase in number of users was highest in Álava. It was up 5.2% compared to the same period of the previous year and moved to first position in the Basque Country, in terms of Internet users (56.4%). Gipuzkoa, with an increase of 3.8 percentage points, had 55.5% of Internet users in the first three months of the current year, which puts it in second place. There was a slight downturn (1%9) in Bizkaia with 49.9% of the population aged 15 and over using Internet, which meant it was in last place.

By age group, there was a notable increase among users aged 15 to 24, with a 2.7% increase with respect to the previous year, followed by the oldest age bracket (65 and over), up 2% on the first quarter of 2009. However, there was a 2% downturn in Internet use among people in the 25-34 year age bracket.



Gender gap among Internet users decreases

The so-called gender gap, which had fallen to 8.3 percentage points in the first quarter of 2009, fell to 7.7 percentage points in the first quarter of 2010. Therefore, with respect to the population aged 15 and over, male Internet users represented 56.6% of the male population and 48.9% in the case of women. Out of all the people using Internet in the first quarter of 2010, 52.3% were men compared to 47.7% of women.

In terms of activity, 96.2% of the student population used Internet, while that figure dropped to 70.4% when it came to the working population and 23.1% of the unemployed and inactive population. The greatest increase with respect to 2009 was among the unemployed and non-working population, which was up 17.3%. In the case of students, the percentage of Internet users increased by 3.9% and, finally, it was up by 1.2% among the working population.

The preferred place to go online continued to be at home, with the number of connections increasing by 11%, which meant that 91% of the users connected from their homes. There was no variation in the number of people accessing the Internet from their work place. On the other hand, Internet access from educational centres and other places (Internet cafés, hotels, leisure areas,..) fell sharply, with drop of 10.4% and 17.9%, respectively.

Significant increase in the average duration of the time spent online

The average duration of online connections was 77.1 minutes in the first quarter of 2010, which was up by 27 minutes with respect to the first quarter of 2009. The percentage of Internet users who browse in Basque increased by 3.5%, while those that use English fell by 1.6%. Spanish continued to be the preferred language to browse online with an increase of 4.2%.

The number of people buying products or services online grew steadily

The number of people that shopped online has risen dramatically. In the first quarter of the year, 32.000 people more shopped online, which means that nearly 316,100 users purchased something online, which was 33.6% up on the first quarter of 2009.

The number of Basque households with access to ICT equipment continues to increase

The number of Basque households with Information and Communication Technologies equipment continued to increase. In the first quarter of 2010, 61.4% of the Basque Country had a computer, which was 3.4% up on the first quarter of 2009.

With respect to Internet access, there are slightly over 458,000 families, 54.9%, which have access to this service from their homes, which, therefore, means that there were 30,000 new families (7%) with Internet connections in the first quarter of 2009. The number of people aged over 14 with access to the Net was up by 110,700 people from the first quarter of 2009.

On the other hand, 90.1% of households had mobile phones. In terms of the population over 14, the percentage owning a mobile phone stood at 94%.

For further information:

Basque Statistics Office C/ Donostia-San Sebastián, 1 01010 Vitoria-Gasteiz Tlf:+34-945-01 75 00 Fax:+34-945-01 75 01 E-mail: eustat@eustat.es Contact: Pilar Martínez Rollón Tel:+34-945-01 75 97 Fax:+34-945-01 75 01 Further press releases on Information Society Survey - Families Databank on Information Society Survey - Families