Press release 25/05/2011

INFORMATION SOCIETY SURVEY OF THE BASQUE COUNTRY - FAMILIES -2011

Over one million people over 15 years old in the Basque Country are Internet Users in 2011

30.4% of them shop on line

The number of Internet users aged 15 and over in the Basque Country stood at 1.071,300 in the first quarter of 2011, which is 56.8% of the Basque population in this age bracket as a whole, according to Eustat data. This percentage is 4.2 percentage points with respect to the same period of this year.

By province, the increase in number of users was highest in Bizkaia. It was up 6.1% compared to the same period of the previous year and the province moved to second position in the Basque Country, in terms of Internet users (56.4%). Gipuzkoa, with an increase of 3.3 percentage points, had 58.8% of Internet users in the first three months of the current year, which puts it in first place. There was a slight downturn (0.9%) in Álava, with 55.5% 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 young users. There was a 7.4% increase among those aged 25 to 34, followed by a 7.2 point rise in the 35-44 age bracket The population in the oldest age bracket (people aged 55-64 years old) registered a considerable increase (6.1 percentage points) with respect to the previous year).



Gender gap among Internet users increases

The so-called gender gap, which stood at 7.7 percentage points in the first quarter of 2010, rose to 8 points in the first quarter of 2011. Therefore, with respect to the population aged 15 and over, male Internet users represented 60.9% of the male population, while female users accounted for 52.9% of women. The total Internet users in the current years can be broken down as follows: 52.2% men and 47.8% women.

In terms of activity, 97% of the student population used Internet, while that figure dropped to 76.3% when it came to the working population and 26.6% of the unemployed and inactive population. The greatest increase with respect to 2010 has been among the working population (5.9 percentage points). In the case of the inactive and unemployed Internet users, the increase was 3.5 points and finally, the student population that use Internet rose by 0.8 points.

The preferred place to access Internet continued to be from home (90.8% of users), even though this percentage fell by 2 tenths of a point with respect to the previous year. Internet access from other places - Internet cafes, hotels, leisure venues..., - are the only ones that have increased their percentage (1.6 points).

The average length of the connections fell considerably

The average length of online connections was 46 minutes in the first quarter of 2011, which was down by over 31 minutes with respect to the same period of the previous year. However, this figure was close to the one for 2009 (only -3.9 minutes).

The percentage of Internet user shopping or purchasing services online fell

The number of Internet users that shopped online has fallen by 1.5 percentage points in 2011 with respect to 2010. While 30.4% of the population who are Internet users shopped online in the first quarter of 2011, the figure had been 31.9% in 2010.

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 2011, 62.4% of the Basque Country had a computer, which was one percentage point up on the first quarter of 2010.

With respect to Internet access, there are slightly over 482,000 families, 57.0%, which have access to this service from their homes, which, therefore, means that there were 23,800 new families (2.1%) with Internet connections compared to the same period in 2010. The number of people aged 15 and over with online access was up 36,100 people (1.8 points) from the first quarter of 2010.

On the other hand, 90.1% of households had mobile phones. In terms of the population aged 15 and over, the percentage owning a mobile phone stood at 94.3%.



For further information:

Basque Statistics Office C/ Donostia-San Sebastián, 1 01010 Vitoria-Gasteiz Tel: +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 31 Fax:+34-945-01 75 01 Further press releases on Information Society Survey of the Basque Country - Families Databank on Information Society Survey of the Basque Country - Families