Whether QR code at the bar counter, WLAN in the S-Bahn or the digital check-in before the flight: the Internet is omnipresent in many people’s everyday lives. Nevertheless, there are still millions in Germany who have hardly ever used the Internet, or have never used it. But why and how many actually live without the Internet?
They actually still exist in Germany, and there are not so few of them: people who live without the Internet, some of whom have never even used it. What seems unimaginable for many is reality for quite a few. The Federal Statistical Office has now presented current figures.
Millions in Germany without Internet
According to the Federal Office, around six percent of Germans between the ages of 16 and 74 live without Internet access. That corresponds to around 3.8 million people in the country, the statisticians said on Tuesday in Wiesbaden. These figures come from the past year 2021. The collection of figures refers explicitly to private households. No internet means, among other things: no streaming, no navigation devices, no messengers, no online shopping or banking, no constant flow of information, no online appointment booking, etc. It is possible, of course, but who does it affect anyway?
Older people live offline more often
According to the Bitkom digital association, the number of people without internet, especially in the young age group up to 30 years, is very manageable. “In our representative surveys, almost 100 percent of the participants under the age of 30 and also under the age of 50 regularly state that they have used the Internet in the past few days and weeks,” said Bitkom CEO Bernhard Rohleder on Tuesday when asked. According to this, almost no one between the ages of 16 and 29 deliberately did without the Internet on a regular basis.
The proportion in the older cohorts is significantly larger. Because the figures from the Federal Statistical Office also show this: the older the people, the higher the proportion of people without the Internet. At around 21 percent, it is greatest among 65 to 74 year olds, the Federal Office said. In the 55 to 64 year olds, the proportion is eight percent. The figures from the statisticians do not show how high it is among the over 74-year-olds. “This leads to the conclusion that far more people are offline at the moment,” said the chairwoman of the federal working group of senior citizens’ organizations, Regina Görner, of the German Press Agency.
For young people in particular, the Internet and, above all, the smartphone are an indispensable part of their everyday lives. But is there a proportion of them that has never been on the Internet? That’s not an easy question to answer. According to the Federal Statistical Office, at least three percent of those under 55 are so-called offliners.
Pandemic makes life difficult without internet
But why are there so many older people in particular who live without the Internet? Regina Görner attributes this, among other things, to the fact that many lack the financial means to equip themselves with digital devices or to pay for an Internet connection. “Also, they see the dangers rather than the benefits and have little confidence in their ability to learn to ensure sovereign use in this complex field.”
The life of these offliners has become even more cumbersome in the corona pandemic, the Federal Office explained. It referred to the digital vaccination certificate and the online appointment bookings that are now necessary in many places. Comparisons with previous years are only possible to a very limited extent due to methodological changes.
Germany below average in comparison
In the European Union, the average number of people without the Internet last year was around eight percent. But there are big differences within the EU, explained the Federal Office with reference to the statistical authority Eurostat. In Ireland, the Scandinavian countries, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, for example, the proportion of 16-74 year olds who have never used the internet was less than five percent. The highest proportions were recorded in Greece with 20 percent, Bulgaria with 17 percent and Portugal with 16 percent.
According to estimates by the International Telecommunication Union of the United Nations (ITU), 37 percent of the world’s population has never been on the Internet. That’s around 2.9 billion people.