Statistics Office: Most Slovaks Online, Internet Use Matches EU Average

Bratislava, 25 January (TASR) - Most Slovaks surf the internet and Slovakia keeps pace with the EU average in its use, the Statistics Office has reported. About 94 percent of Slovakia's population aged 16 to 74 is online, with most connecting daily. Three quarters of users make purchases online. The use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools and paid streaming services is also growing. The Statistical Office's annual survey on the use of information technologies confirms that the internet is a routine part of life in Slovakia. In the 12 months prior to the 2025 survey, more than 3.84 million people aged 16 to 74 used the internet, representing 94 percent of the population in this age group. Slovakia is thus at the level of the EU average, which according to Eurostat stands at 94.5 percent. Despite the high level of digitalisation, there remains a group of residents who have never used the internet. This includes more than 175,000 people, or 4.3 percent in the monitored age category. While access to the internet is almost a given among young people, its use gradually declines with age. In the 12 months prior to the survey, nearly 42 percent of seniors aged 75 to 89 also used the internet. One of the main online activities remains communication. Email was sent or received by 3.03 million people, exactly 80 percent of internet users. The second most common activity was making phone and video calls, used by nearly 76 percent of users. Goods or services for private purposes were purchased online at least once in the three months prior to the survey by 2.73 million people, representing 71.2 percent of those who used the internet in the previous 12 months. Most commonly, residents of Slovakia bought travel tickets for buses, trains, flights and taxis (1.1 million people, 41.6 percent of users). A new trend in internet use is the use of AI tools. Last year, 33.3 percent of internet users used AI tools to create texts, images, program code or videos, amounting to more than 1.25 million people. The highest share was recorded among young people aged 16 to 24, with as many as 76.4 percent of respondents reporting their use. This share declined with increasing age. mf