Pandemic accelerates shift to online, survey finds

Irish people are online more than ever, a new survey from the Central Statistics Office has found, as the Covid-19 pandemic accelerated a shift to digital technologies.

The majority of people are getting online via their smartphones, rather than laptops, the data showed. The Internet Coverage and Usage in Ireland 2021 study found more than a third of daily internet users are almost always online, a figure that has risen six percentage points from 2020.

The survey is the third and final publication from the information and communications technology (ICT) household survey carried out in the first and second quarters of the year.

Overall, 90 per cent of people said they were recent internet users, meaning they had gone online in the three months prior to the survey. That was one percentage point higher than the previous year.

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The survey also revealed a high level of daily use, with 89 per cent of recent internet users saying they go online every day or almost every day. Most of that access is happening via smartphones, with 95 per cent getting online through a mobile device compared with 75 per cent who are using laptops.

Some 26 per cent of those in the 16-29 year old age group said they used the internet all the time, using a mix of devices, with 28 per cent using it nearly all the time. Of that age group, students were the most frequent users of the internet, with 96 per cent getting online every day or almost every day.

Almost half of those said they used the internet several times a day, with 36 per cent using it all the time.

The majority in that age group – 92 per cent – said they used smart TVs, smart speakers, game consoles, e-book readers, smartwatches and so on to get online, with smartphones at 86 per cent.

Only 8 per cent of people in Ireland over the age of 16 had never used the internet.

"The Covid-19 pandemic has reshaped Irish life in so many ways, not least in terms of the frequency of usage of ICT and how we use it," said CSO statistician Maureen Delamere.

“Our everyday lives are becoming far more digital, and in 2021 we were online more than ever, working from home and relying on technology and digital services. We are using the internet more frequently.”

Connectivity

Unsurprisingly, the survey revealed an inequality in terms of internet access, with home internet connectivity highest for the Dublin region at 96 per cent and lowest in the Border and midwest regions at 89 per cent.

Dublin also had the highest rate of fixed broadband connections, with 92 per cent of people having access to a fixed-line service at home. that compared with 79 per cent in the west and 75 per cent of households in the Border region with the same access.

Looking at households without internet access, the survey found that 9 per cent said it was because broadband was not available in their area, with the most common reason cited – 51 per cent – being that they did not need the internet. A lack of skills or knowledge was to blame for lack of access for 36 per cent of those households.