Every Tenth Bulgarian has Never Accessed the Internet

In 2023, 88.5% of households in Bulgaria have access to the Internet in their homes, according to a study by the National Statistical Institute (NSI). From there, they report a growth of 31.8% for the last 10 years. However, just over 10% of Bulgarians have never accessed the Internet.

The fewest households with Internet access are in the North-West region - 17.4% are not connected to the network. Although the percentage is the highest for the country, there is still a decline in this trend - a decade ago, nearly 60% of households in this part of Bulgaria did not have access to the Internet.

The southwestern region, which also includes Sofia, has the highest share of households with Internet access - 92.8%. Those living with children use the global network more actively, with 97.7% of them having access to the Internet, while this percentage for households without children is 87.1%.

Nearly 80% of people between the ages of 16 and 74 use the Internet daily or weekly, with students being the most active (99.3%). The number of people who have never surfed the Internet is also decreasing, as they are now 11.8%.

The most preferred device for accessing the Internet is the mobile phone (78.3%), and the main purpose for which it is used is communication. More than two-thirds of users choose to spend their time online in phone and video conversations (69%), 65.4% use it for messaging, and 64.2% use it for social networks. Reading news sites, newspapers and magazines online is a service that 59% of respondents do, with the biggest gender divide seen when looking for health information - 50.6% of women used the global web for this purpose, while 35.4% of men.

Twice as many people shop online in 2023 (45.2%) compared to 2018, most often buying clothes, shoes, accessories (78.1%). Services related to accommodation are used by 35.8%. 95.5% of those surveyed shopped from Bulgarian merchants, and 27.4% - from merchants from EU countries.

More than a third (35.5%) of people have basic or above basic digital skills, with the percentage lowest in the 65-74 age group (7.3%). The index is based on selected activities related to Internet and software use, such as downloading and installing applications, word processing, and copying or moving files.

32.2% of those who took part in the survey indicated that they had come across information on news sites on the Internet or in social media that they considered to be false or questionable. Of these, 36.6% verify its credibility by checking the sources or finding other information on the Internet.

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