The Network Society - University of Massachusetts Amherst

40 The Network Society
Table 2.7 Use of the Internet by age interval per country (%)
Country 15-24 25-34 35-54 over 55
Austria 81.81 75.28 65.73 21.02
Belgium 75.60 63.35 48.18 12.69
Switzerland 88.00 76.82 71.48 29.14
Czech Republic 73.07 39.82 38.46 10.31
Denmark 91.66 81.33 72.95 33.33
Spain 50.15 35.98 28.81 3.78
Finland 91.93 82.53 63.94 22.29
France 62.67 53.90 45.00 13.28
UK 73.34 62.05 59.49 20.01
Greece 32.60 25.71 15.73 1.95
Hungary 63.55 27.55 15.24 4.15
Ireland 62.79 56.60 46.78 16.34
Israel 55.68 52.631 37.93 18.69
Italy 48.87 52.83 33.28 8.67
Luxembourg 85.71 80.00 54.54 18.18
Netherlands 87.09 76.26 67.30 29.97
Norway 85.71 80.00 74.28 30.70
Poland 53.32 34.25 18.81 3.43
Sweden 66.30 65.45 50.97 21.21
Slovenia 67.85 53.57 38.33 7.54
Average 68.91 57.56 46.56 16.61
Source: European Social Survey 2002/2003.
Another characteristic common to the societies in transition, in this
case with bearing on our analysis of European societies, is the fact that
there is a considerable difference between the use rates for the older
and younger generations.
For all societies in transition for which there are comparative data
(Portugal, Spain, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary and Poland), one
can verify that the older citizens using the Internet correspond to only
10% of the younger users. In the case of other European countries,
the figures are almost always somewhat above 20%.