Home > Statistics > Use of information and communications technology by individuals > 2014 > One half of Finnish residents participate in social network services

Published: 6 November 2014

One half of Finnish residents participate in social network services

Correction. The release was corrected on 25 November 2014. The corrections are indicated in red.

Fifty-one per cent of the population aged 16 to 89 followed social network services in 2014. Among the population aged 16 to 89, 86 per cent used the Internet. Sixty-four per cent were online several times a day. The share of the population that had made online purchases or placed online orders in the past three months grew by four percentage points to 48 per cent. The use of social media, like blogs and chat groups is increasing.

Prevalence of Internet usage and certain purposes of use in 2014

Correction on 25 November 2014 The corrections are indicated in red.
	Used the Internet in the past 3 months	Uses the Internet usually several times a day	Used Internet banking in the past 3 months	Bought over the Internet in the past 3 months	Followed some social network service in the past 3 months	Used the Internet with a outside the home or workplace in the past three months	Used an instant messaging service with a mobile phone in the past three months	Used the Internet to search for job or send a job application in the past three months
	Percentage share of population
Aged 16-24	99	89	79	63	93	87	88	60
Aged 25-34	100	90	98	72	82	81	64	45
Aged 35-44	100	84	98	70	72	76	42	33
Aged 45-54	96	68	92	59	46	59	27	23
Aged 55-64	90	56	83	33	31	38	13	9
Aged 65-74	68	34	61	20	15	16	2	1
Aged 75-89	28	10	22	4	3	2	0	0
Men	89	68	82	49	49	43	35	25
Women	84	61	77	48	52	40	34	26
Total 16–89	86	64	80	48	51	54	34	25
Total 16–74	92	70	87	53	56	59	38	28

Eighty-six per cent of the population aged 16 to 89 use the Internet. New users only came from the population aged over 55, as nearly all younger people already use the Internet. This appears from Statistics Finland's survey on use of information and communications technology. Among the oldest age group of the survey, those aged 75 to 89, 28 per cent were Internet users. The data for the survey were collected in April to August 2014.

Finnish residents are on the Internet more and more often. The share of the population that uses the Internet several times per day increased in 2014 in all age groups. The population aged 25 to 34 are most commonly on the Internet several times per day (over 90% of them). The share of the entire population aged 16 to 89 that use the Internet several times per day grew by three percentage points to 64 per cent.

Tablet computers are quickly becoming widespread in Finland. Thirty per cent of households have a tablet. In 2013, 19 per cent of households had a tablet. In 204, the share of Finns that use smart phones increased by ten percentage points from the previous year to 60 per cent.

An ever growing number of people in Finland shop online. In the past three months, 48 per cent of Finns had purchased or ordered something online. The share grew by four percentage points from the year before. Since 2009, the share of persons that purchased something online in the past three months has grown nearly 1.5-fold. Tourism services, tickets and admission tickets to cultural events, as well as clothes and shoes are most often purchased online. Online purchasing is slightly more common in large towns than in semi-urban and rural municipalities.

The popularity of social network services has increased further in Finland. According to the survey, 51 per cent of the population aged 16 to 89 had followed social network services in the past three months. The share is four percentage points higher than in 2013. Some Finns have adopted cloud services, i.e. storage and data processing capacity found on network servers, as part of their Internet usage. In the past three months, 22 per cent of Finns had saved files on so-called cloud servers. The share grew by two percentage points from the year before. .

Source: Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Rauli Kohvakka 029 551 3448, Perttu Melkas 029 551 2511, tietoyhteiskunta.info@stat.fi

Director in charge: Riitta Harala

---

Updated 6.11.2014