Analytics, Internet, Latvia, Society, Statistics

In 14.3% of households Internet is not used. Of which 62.6% indicate that they do not need Internet. Next reasons for not using the Internet is lack of skills (36.2%) and too high costs of devices (24.8%). But 1.7 % indicate that Internet is not used because broadband Internet connection is not available at the place where household is located.

In 2019, as compared to the previous year, the number of regular Internet users (use Internet at least once a week) increased by 2.5%. In 2018, the Internet was used on a regular basis by 81.2% of population, in 2019 – by 83.7 %. Compared to 2010, this indicator has risen by 21.2%.

Most active the Internet is used on a regular basis in Riga and Zemgale region – by 87% of population, but the smallest share of Internet users is in Latgale where it is used on a regular basis by 76.5% of population. In breakdown by age groups, almost all (99.8%) 16-24 years old young people use Internet at least once a week, at age 25-34 years – 94.1 % and at age 55-74 years – 61.1% of population.

In 2019 most popular device used to access the Internet outside home or work is mobile phone, which is used by 75.5% of population2. 14.4% indicated that they use portable computer, but 9.1% – tablet.

Population use the Internet for various activities. Most popular of them is sending/ receiving e-mails and internet banking – 83% of population on average. Females more commonly participate in social networking than males (79.5% and 70.2%, respectively), but males – listen to the music on the Internet more often than females (52.7% and 49.4%, respectively). Most popular activities of 16-24 years old young people are participating in social networks, sending messages in texting apps and sending/ receiving e-mails, but for seniors (65-74 years) – reading online news sites/ newspapers/ news magazines and internet banking.

Internet activities of population in 2019

(as per cent of population that used Internet during the last three months within the respective group)

Also, storage of documents, photos, music, videos or other files in data storage on the Internet (clouds) is another popular purpose of Internet use, which is used by 36.5% of Internet users. But 42.5% of all population use data storage on the Internet, flash memory, external hard disks and other data storage devices for creating backup copy of various files – documents, photos, music, videos, etc.

53.8% of population3 use Internet to purchase goods and services. Compared to the previous year, this indicator has grown by 0.8%. But still 46.2% of population indicate that they have not made purchases over the Internet during the last year mentioning habit to shop on the spot as a reason (80.1%). 13.2% indicated that another person helped them in purchasing goods or services over the Internet, but 11.3% of population refrained from purchasing goods or services over the Internet due to payment security and privacy concerns.

The survey on ICT usage in households was conducted at the beginning of 2019 and covered 5 219 people aged 16–74.