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Press Release 31/05/2017

SURVEY ON THE INFORMATION SOCIETY. FAMILIES 2017

Three out of every four people are Internet users in the Basque Country in 2017

The biggest increase was found among people aged 55 and over

The number of Internet users aged 15 and over in the Basque Country stood at 1,389,900 in the first quarter of 2017, 75.1% of the overall Basque population in this age group, according to data prepared by Eustat. Compared to the same period in the previous year this percentage was up by one percentage point.

In terms of age, practically the whole of the population in the Basque Country between the ages of 15 and 44 (95%) were Internet users. The increase of users in the 55-64 age group is worthy of a mention, with an increase of 4.5 percentage points, followed by people aged 65 and over which, following a rise of 2.7 points, indicates that one in every four people over the age of 65 is now a user of the Internet.

The gender gap amongst the population that use the Internet decreased slightly

The so-called gender gap, which in 2016 stood at 5.9 percentage points, decreased to 4.8 points in the first quarter of 2017. Thus, with respect to the population aged 15 and over, male Internet users represented 77.6% of the male population, whereas female users accounted for 72.8% of the female population. Taking Internet users as a whole, however, for the first time the number of women online was greater, 50.3% of the total, while men make up 49.7%.

In relation to activity, 98.7% of the student population were Internet users, whereas amongst the population in work this figure stood at 95.5%, and amongst inactive and unemployed individuals it stood at 47.9%. The greatest increase with respect to 2016 occurred amongst people in work (1.3 percentage points).

The preferred location for accessing the Internet continued to be the private home, with 97.8% of users connecting from their houses. Internet access from work centres (36.5%) and from study centres (9.8%) saw slight decreases of 2.5 and 1.3 points, respectively. By contrast, access from other places increased the most, 7.2 points up on the first quarter of the previous year. This change in trend saw a rise in the number of connections in public places.

The percentage of Internet users who acquired any kind of goods or services through this method in the first quarter of 2017 was 46.1%, equivalent to a total of 641,400 people. This figure accounts for 34.7% of the Basque population aged 15 and over.

Gipuzkoa was the province where the number of users rose most in 2017

Gipuzkoa was the province with the greatest increase in the percentage of users (2.4 percentage points), and occupied second place in the Basque Country. Álava remained in first place, where 77.2% of people were internet users and where there had been an increase of 1.2 points with respect to the same period of the previous year. Bizkaia, for its part, with similar figures to those obtained in 2016, was situated in third place, with 74.1% of the population aged 15 or over using the Internet.

Regarding the three Basque capitals, Vitoria-Gasteiz, with 77.2% of individuals aged 15 and over who were Internet users, stood in first place, followed by Donostia-San Sebastián, with a percentage of 74.7%, whilst Bilbao was in third position, with 73.0% of the population connected to the Internet.

Graph 1. Evolution of the Population aged 15 and over by access to ICT equipment in the home per quarter. %. 1999-2017
Source: Eustat. Survey on the information society. Families

The amount of ICT equipment in Basque homes continues to increase

In the first quarter of 2017, 70.7% of households in the Basque Country had a computer. This percentage is slightly higher (0.6 points) than the previous year. The proportion of the population aged 15 and over with a computer at home stood at 77.9%.

As regards Internet access, more than 692,200 families, or 78.9%, had this service in their homes, with 45,600 new families (4.8 points) compared to the same period of 2016. In turn, the population aged 15 and over with home Internet access was up by 85,300 (4.1 points) since the first quarter of 2016, and stood at 85.3%.

For its part, the mobile telephone was present in 95.0% of households. If we refer to the population aged 15 and over, the percentage with a mobile telephone rises to 97.1%.

Table 1. Household ICT equipment and Population using Internet
Source: Eustat. Survey on the information society. Families