Broadband offers a much faster connection to the internet, and offers the potential of changing the way the internet is used. The proportion of households with a broadband connection in 2005 was highest in the Netherlands (54 percent), Denmark (51 percent), Belgium (41 percent) and Sweden (40 percent), and lowest in Greece (1 percent), Cyprus (4 percent), the Czech Republic (5 percent) and Slovakia (7 percent). Amongst enterprises the highest levels of broadband connections were recorded in Sweden (83 percent), Denmark (82 percent), Finland (81 percent) and Belgium (78 percent), and the lowest in Cyprus (40 percent), Poland (43 percent) and Greece (44 percent).
More than three quarters of students used the internet at least once a week
In the first quarter of 2005, 43 percent of individuals1 in the EU25 used the internet regularly, i.e. at least once a week, whether at home or at any other location. The highest levels of regular use were recorded in Sweden (76 percent), the Netherlands (74 percent) and Denmark (73 percent), and the lowest in Greece (18 percent), the Czech Republic and Cyprus (both 26 percent).
At EU25 level a higher proportion of men used the internet regularly than women (49 percent compared with 38 percent) and this was true for all Member States, although in Latvia, Lithuania and Hungary the gap was only one percentage point.
While more than three quarters of students4 (79 percent) in the EU25, and more than half of the employed (55 percent), used the internet regularly, less than a third of the unemployed (32 percent) did so. While the gap between Member States ranged from one to two for students (48 percent in Greece to 97 percent in the Netherlands) and one to three for the employed (28 percent in Greece to 85 percent in the Netherlands), it reached one to twelve for the unemployed (7 percent in Lithuania to 87 percent in the Netherlands).
The proportion of individuals who had never used the internet was the same as for regular users, 43 percent in the EU25. It should be noted that nearly one woman in two, and one unemployed person in two, in the EU25 had never used the internet, compared to less than 10 percent of students, less than 30 percent of the employed, and less than 40 percent of men.
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