Status: 04/11/2023 11:37 a.m
Many services, appointment bookings and transfers are often only offered online. This is a problem for six percent of the population because they live offline. According to the Federal Statistical Office, one age group in particular is affected.
Almost six percent of people between the ages of 16 and 74 in Germany have never been on the Internet. This is reported by the Federal Statistical Office in Wiesbaden, citing surveys on user behavior in the field of communication from the past year. That corresponds to around 3.4 million people in the Federal Republic.
Accordingly, the proportion of so-called offliners was greatest in the group of 65 to 74 year olds. According to the Federal Office, one sixth or 17 percent of these had never used the Internet. In the 45 to 64 age group, five percent had never been online, and among the under-45s, two percent were still offline.
It is becoming increasingly difficult for people without the Internet to cope with everyday life. Because many services, appointment bookings and transfers are often only offered online.
Large differences within the EU
On average in the European Union (EU), according to the statistics office Eurostat, the proportion of offliners was seven percent in 2022. There were clear differences in the EU member states: In the Scandinavian countries, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium and Ireland, less than four percent of the 16 to 74 year olds had never used the internet.
The highest proportions were recorded in Greece and Portugal, each with 14 percent, and Croatia and Bulgaria, each with 13 percent.
A third of the world’s population offline
According to estimates by the United Nations International Telecommunication Union (ITU), around 34 percent of the world’s population was offline in 2022 – that’s 2.7 billion people worldwide. In Europe – including the non-EU countries – and America, the Internet is therefore more easily accessible, but here, too, eleven percent and 17 percent of the population respectively had no access to the Internet in 2022.