During 2015 the Internet access in households continued to increase and reached 71.2% compared to 68.6% in 2014, according to the results of the annual survey ‘Information and Communication Technologies Usage in Households and by Individuals 2015’.

At the same time, a small increase was observed in the individuals that used the Internet, from 69.3% in 2014 to 71.7% in 2015.

According to the main results of the survey, the percentage of households with access to a tablet computer increased to 39.2% in 2015 compared to 32.8% in 2014 and 18.7% in 2013.

A percentage of 11.2% of the households with Internet access have mobile connection to the Internet (via handset, broadband card, USB) compared to 7.1% in 2014.

Individuals 16 – 24 years old (97.8%) and students (98.6%) are the more frequent Internet users.

This percentage decreases with age, even though for individuals 65 – 74 years old the use of Internet increased to 23.0% compared to 15.2% in 2014.

Men are using the Internet more frequently than women with percentage 71.3% and 68.1% respectively.

The use of internet for interaction with Public Authorities declined in 2015. Namely, 33.7% of persons using the internet have some kind of interaction with Public Authorities or Public Services compared to 41.5% in 2014.

The most popular Internet activities are reading online news/newspapers/magazines and finding information about goods or services (78.8% and 74.8% of Internet users respectively).

Some 18.7% of persons aged 16 – 24 years old made online orders for goods and services in the first three months of 2015 compared to 23.1% in 2014. Clothes and sports goods, similarly to last year, is the most popular category of goods ordered online in 2015.

Some 60.0% of persons ordered online clothes and sports goods and 45.5% made travel arrangements (tickets, hotel, car hire etc.).

The data were collected with personal interviews and it covered all the government controlled areas of the Republic of Cyprus.

The reference period of the survey was the first quarter of 2015. The survey covered 1.849 households and 4.057 individuals 16 – 74 years old.

Source: Famagusta Gazette