According to Eurostat, 87% of the EU population aged 16 to 74 used the Internet at least once in the three months preceding the survey in 2020. Statisticians note a rapid rise in this figure over time, from 67% in 2010 to 78% in 2015 and to its current value.

In 2020, Europeans used the internet mainly to send and receive emails (74%), to search for information about goods and services (69%), for instant messaging (68%), to read online news (65%) and for telephony or making video calls (60%). Also popular were banking (57%), listening to music (56%), sitting on social media (56%) and searching for medical information (55%).

Because of the social distance measures in place in most EU member states in the spring, internet-based telephone and video calls have become a common communication option. The statistics are telling: 60 percent of those aged 16 to 74 in the EU have made contact in this way at least once in the last three months. This compares with only 17% when data collection began in 2008 and 52% in 2019.

By country, telephone or video calls over the internet were most popular in Cyprus (85%) and the Netherlands (83%). The Czech Republic and Slovenia were the outsiders (52%).