site.btaShare of Bulgarian Households with Internet Access Continues to Grow, Now 92.1% Have It

The trend of annual growth of the relative share of households with internet access continues in 2024 and now 92.1% have it at home, the National Statistical Institute said Friday. Their relative share increased by 3.6 percentage points compared to the previous year. 94.7% of the households living in urban areas had Internet access and for those resided in rural areas the relative share was 84.3%.

81.9% of the individuals aged between 16 and 74 years used the internet every day or at least once a week at any location (home, work or other places), and the share of people who had never surfed the internet decreased to 9.3%.

The internet was used mostly for communication by the individuals as 71.4% of them carried out phone or video calls (using applications such as Viber, WhatsApp, Skype, FaceTime, Messenger, Snapchat, Zoom, MS Teams, Webex), 65% were in the social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, etc.), and 64.9% used instant messaging (via Viber, WhatsApp, Messenger, Snapchat, Skype, Discord, Telegram).

The highest relative share of households with internet access was found in the Southwestern Region (95.5%) and the lowest share was in the Southeastern Region (88.6%). Households with children used the global network more actively as 98.4% of
them had internet connection, compared to 89.9% of the households without children.

The main reason for not having access to the internet at home was the lack of internet skills (3.6%), and 3.5% of the households indicated that they did not need internet (the internet was not useful, interesting, etc.). Access costs (equipment, subscription, etc.) were too high for 1.2% of the households.

Use of the internet

In 2024, 81.9% of the individuals aged between 16 and 74 years used the internet every day or at least once a week at any location (home, work or other places). The share of people who had never surfed the internet decreased to 9.3%. 

The most active users of the internet were the students (96.7%) and the individuals with university education (94.5%), as well as people in the 16 - 24 and 25 - 34 age groups (93.9% and 95.4%, respectively).

An increasing number of older people use internet: over a five-year period the relative share of individuals aged 65 - 74 who surfed regularly had more than doubled.

The largest gender divide was observed among people who searched health-related information online, as 47.4% of women used the global network for this purpose, compared to 32.0% of men.

eGovernment

In 2024, 31.8% of internet users also interacted with public authorities online or sought online public services. Compared to the previous year, the relative share increased by 2.1 percentage points.

The Bulgarian citizens most often used e-government to access personal information stored by public authorities or public services - 19.4%.  

When using the e-government, citizens most often encountered technical problems of public authorities’ websites or apps (19.9%), and 12.1% reported that these websites were difficult to use, the wording was not clear and the procedures were not well explained.

4.9% encountered problems related to the use of electronic identification when requesting a service by public authorities or public services.

Online shopping

In 2024, 49.8% of individuals shopped online and over a five-year period this relative share increased with 18.9 percentage points. Women were more active than men (51.6% against 47.9%), as were people with university education (74.2%) and those aged 25 - 34 years (72%). 

Internet shoppers most frequently bought: clothes, shoes or accessories - 78.9%; accommodation (from hotels, travel agencies, tour operators) - 38.0%; transport services (e.g. local bus, train, flight tickets, taxi ride) - 34.8%; cosmetics, beauty or wellness products - 32.7%; sports goods (excluding sports clothing) - 32.7%; deliveries from restaurants, fast-food chains, catering services - 32.0%; tickets to cultural or other events - 29.3%; subscriptions to the internet or mobile phone connections - 24.8%; consumer electronics or household appliances - 20.8%; computers, tablets, mobile phones or accessories - 20.7%.