The Netherlands leads Europe in household Internet access

In case passing Europe’s first net neutrality law and having the world’s fastest Internet connection didn’t convince you, here’s more proof that the Dutch love their Internet: the Netherlands has the highest proportion of households with access to the Internet in all of Europe, at 94 percent in 2011 (versus 78 percent in 2005), compared to an EU average of about 73 percent.

Top 10 EU27 countries
› The Netherlands
› Norway
› Sweden
› Denmark
› Finland
› United Kingdom
› Germany
› Ireland
› Belgium
› France

People in the Netherlands are also using the Internet more and more often. Last year, 86 percent of Internet users were online on a daily or almost daily basis, compared to just 68 percent in 2005. Half of all Internet users accessed the web through mobile devices such as laptops and smart phones in 2011. More than two thirds (69 percent) of young people aged 12 to 25 have a mobile device at their disposal, in contrast with just 13 percent of 65 to 75-year-olds.

The level of internet access increased in all 27 EU Member States over the past five years. Almost three quarters of households had access to the internet as of the first quarter of 2011, compared with almost half in the first quarter of 2006.

Note that during the same period, the share of individuals aged 16-74 in the EU27 who had never used the Internet decreased from 42 percent to 24 percent.

Source: Statistics Netherlands