The telephone results of the first official run of the Pan European Internet
Monitor by Pro Active International
show that the Internet usage in Europe is growing rapidly, but that there are
large differences between the different countries in North, West and Southern
Europe.
Thirty-four percent (107.8 million) of the European population of 15 years and older
has access to the Internet at any location. Twenty-four percent (75.9 million) has actively
used the Internet in the last 14 days.
Compared to the USA, Europe is catching up at high speed. Nielsen/Netratings
figures show that in the USA slightly more than 50 percent has access to the
Internet and 35 percent has been online in the last 14 days. However the USA seems
to be ahead in online purchasing. Less than 8 percent of the Europeans has ever
purchased online and 2.6 percent (8.1 million) has purchased online in the past 14
days. For the USA the estimations are that 15 percent ever purchased online and the
frequency and amounts of online purchases are significantly higher than in
Europe.
Internet usage in Europe differs per country. The number of Internet users in
the Scandinavian countries is the highest. Sweden leads with 53.3 percent of the
population that has been online in the last 14 days. In Switzerland, the
Netherlands, Austria and the UK that number is around one third of the total
population. Germany, France, Italy, and Belgium are below the European
average. East-Germany is responsible for the low average Internet usage in
Germany, because figures in West-Germany are similar to those of the UK. In
Spain and Portugal less than 8 percent of the population of 15 years and older has
been online in the last 14 days.
“These first results of the Pan European Internet Monitor show that Internet
in Europe is starting to catch up at high speed, although we still see very
large differences between Northern, Southern and Western Europe,” said
Liesbeth Hop, chief executive officer Pro Active International.
Pro Active International conducts the Pan European Internet Monitor twice a
year in 14 different European countries by questioning 14.000 people
(representative samples in each country of the population 15 years and older)
by telephone or face-to-face research and by questioning more than 150,000
Internet users by an large online research at the same time. The results of
the online research will be presented at the end of April 2000.
