The Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) recently published the following "Figure of the Week”: Just over 5 percent of the population aged 16 to 74 in Germany are offliners. Whether making appointments, booking tickets or transferring money, many services are now offered almost exclusively online. For people without internet access, everyday life is becoming increasingly difficult to manage.
The survey results are derived from the annual survey on "Information and communication technologies (ICT) in private households", which is conducted annually in all EU member states. This has been integrated into the microcensus since 2021. The sample is representative of the German population for people aged 16 to 74 and comprises a total of 14,354 people. A mixed methodological array was used for the data collection (by postal questionnaire, online questionnaire, in-person interview), which took place between March and June 2023.
Results for Germany:
- In 2023, just over 5 percent of people in Germany between the ages of 16 and 74 were so-called offline users, meaning they had never used the internet. According to the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), this corresponds to 3.1 million people in Germany.
- The proportion of those who have never used the internet was highest in the 65 to 74 age group, with one out of seven (15 %) being offline.
- In the 45 to 64 age group, just under 5 percent had never used the Internet.
- In the youngest age group of 16 to 44-year-olds, on the other hand, only 2% were offline.
EU-Comparison: There were also significant differences in internet usage between EU countries in 2023.
- According to Eurostat, the average proportion of offline users in the European Union was 6 percent.
- However, there were considerable variations between the member states: In Luxembourg, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden, less than 1 percent of 16- to 74-year-olds said they had never used the internet.
- The highest proportions were recorded in Croatia (14 %), Greece (13 %), Portugal and Bulgaria (12 % each).
Global Comparison:
- According to the estimates by the United Nations International Telecommunication Union (ITU), around a third of the world's population did not have access to the internet in 2023, which equates to 2.6 billion people worldwide.
- Although the internet is more accessible in Europe - including non-EU countries - and America, 9 percent and 13 percent of the population respectively still had no internet access in 2023.
Source: Destatis
Further Information can be found here.