30 May, 2000
Inquiries: Mr Vesa Virtanen +358 9 1734 2554,
Regional examination;
Mr Juha Nurmela +358 9 1734 2548, Other information
Director in charge: Mr Risto Lehtonen
Mobile phones and computer becoming part of Finnish everyday life
The number of new Finnish households with a mobile phone increased by over 800,000 between 1996 and 1999. Seventy-eight per cent of the 2.35 million Finnish households had at least one mobile phone in autumn 1999. As many as 23 per cent of households no longer had a wired telephone at all. Their number went up by 200,000. According to a Statistics Finland survey, nearly all Finns aged between 15 and 39 used the mobile phone, whereas only some 40 per cent of the men and 20 per cent of the women aged over 60 had a mobile phone of their own.
More messaging via the mobile phone
Ninety per cent of the mobile phone users sent text messages via their phone. A considerable proportion of the young women users have adopted text messaging as their prime form of communicating via the mobile phone. About 70 per cent of those using text messaging said they had sent questions or reminders concerning a matter or time. Gossiping and chatting messages had been sent by 46 per cent of the respondents while 28 said they had sent intimate messages.
In autumn 1999, the average sizes of the latest mobile telephone bills were FIM 220 for those aged 15 to 19 and FIM 250 for those aged 20 to 29. This means that the totalled up mobile telephone expenses of the main user group of those aged under 30 amounted to FIM 2.7 billion, of which those aged between 10 and 19 accounted for some FIM 900 million.
More than half of Finns can already use the computer
In the three years examined, Finland gained 350,000 new households with a home computer. The number on new Internet connections was slightly lower than this at 320,000. Fast Internet home connections of at least ISDN standard only numbered 70,000 in autumn 1999. Sixty per cent of both men and women had the opportunity to use the computer in autumn 1999. The extent of computer use declined as the age of the respondent went up. Only a couple of per cent of those aged under 20 were unable to use the computer anywhere, while only a very small minority of those aged over 60 had anything to do with the computer at all.
About one third of those aged between 10 and 74 could access the electronic network from somewhere. Net and email connections were most used (60%) by those aged between 15 and 19. Without the facilities offered by schools, the proportion of those aged between 10 and 19 with an access to the net would have been 30 percentage points lower.
The number of those who had made purchases via the Internet at least once was approximately one quarter of a million, i.e. 20 per cent of those with access to the net. Mail order purchases had been made by 1.8 million Finns while 1.2 million had bought goods or services over the phone in autumn 1999. Only 16 per cent (160,000) of those with access to the Internet reckoned they would start making purchases via the net this year.
Mobile phones grew common in all Finnish regions
In the 1996 to 1999 period, the mobile phone grew common in small and family households alike in all Finnish regions. In the sparsely populated areas of Northern and Eastern Finland (EU's Objective 6 region) and in the areas undergoing structural industrial change (EU's Objective 2 region), however, the number of households with a mobile phone grew less than in other areas.
In the different regions the spread of the home computer was
17-44 per cent among small households and 58-70 per cent among
family households. Forty-four per cent of the small households in
the Capital Region and 20 per cent of those elsewhere in the
country had a computer. Connections of family households to the net
have increased rapidly in the Capital Region and elsewhere in the 0
region. Nevertheless, most of the small households and the family
households in the actual support areas (EU's Objective 2, 5b and 6
regions) were not connected to electronic information networks by
autumn 1999.
There were considerable geographical differences in the use of the computer for work purposes. Over the examined three years, use of the computer for work purposes increased more among employees aged over 30 than among their younger counterparts in all regions. In the Capital Region, up to 80 per cent of employees over 30 used the computer in their work. Its use was least widespread in the sparsely populated areas of Northern and Eastern Finland, where only one third of employees used it in their work. The differences in the extent of the use of information and communications equipment emanate largely from the geographic differences in the numbers and types of jobs.
Young people's home use of the computer increased in the whole country, but there were large geographic differences in its use among those aged over 30, and the differences grew during the examined three-year period. In the Capital Region, 59 per cent of those aged over 30 used the Internet, while the corresponding proportion in the Objective 2, 5 and 6 regions was only 25 per cent.
These data on the spread of the new information and communications technology are based on extensive interview surveys Statistics Finland undertook in 1996 and 1999. The data from the 1999 survey comprises information obtained by interviewing 730 households and 1,500 persons (aged 10 to 74). A report published from the survey findings, entitled Mobile Phones and Computer as Parts of Everyday Life in Finland, describes the changes that have taken place in the use of the new information and communications technology over three years.
Source: Mobile Phones and Computer as Parts of
Everyday Life in Finland, Reviews 2000/2. Statistics Finland.
Further information on the Internet at: http://www.stat.fi/tk/el/stty2r1e.html