Internet access in households continued to increase in 2017 reaching 79.4% compared to 74.4% in 2016, the Statistical Service of Cyprus reported on Friday.

It said that the percentage of households with access to tablet computers reached 45.9% in 2017 compared to 40.3% in 2016. An increase has been recorded in the percentage of households that own a laptop computer from 66.3% in 2016 to 69.2% in 2017.

Furthermore, 94.9% of households with dependent children own a computer whereas the corresponding percentage of households without dependent children stands at 68.5%.

The main reasons for not accessing the Internet at home were the lack of skills (63% of total households that do not have access) and the absence of need (62.2%).

The survey showed that 79.5% uses the internet at least once a week. Almost all persons aged 16 – 24 (98.2%) use the internet at least once a week. This percentage decreases to 33.9% among individuals aged 65 – 74, but appears to have increased compared to 26.4% in 2016. Highly educated persons (96.8%) use the internet more frequently than persons with lower education level (48.8%).

During the first quarter of 2017, the use of internet increased to 80.7% compared to 75.9% in 2016.

The most popular internet activities were reading online news/newspapers/magazines (79.9%), participating in social networks (78.1%), finding information about goods and services (76.1%), seeking health related information (71.8%) and making phone calls or video calls (via webcam) over the internet (70.0%).

In addition, 84.6% of the persons that used the Internet in the first quarter of 2017, used their mobile phone or smart phone to access the Internet when away from home or work while 21.2% used a laptop or tablet.

According to the results of the survey, 24.4% of persons aged 16 – 74 ordered goods and services online in the first quarter of 2017 compared to 22.1% in 2016.

The most popular categories of goods/services ordered online were clothes or sports goods (54.4%), other travel arrangements such as transport tickets, car hire etc. (48.1%) and holiday accommodation (38.1%).

The survey showed that 82.4% of persons that bought or ordered goods and services for private use prefer sellers from other EU countries, 39.4% from the rest of the world and 27.3% buy or order from sellers in Cyprus. The amount spent for goods or services over the internet ranged between 100-500 euros.