More and more people in Sweden use the internet almost every day. Among the population, 84 percent use the internet several times a day, and this share has grown by 3 percentage points since 2018. Most people connect to the internet via mobile phone (88 percent), which is 7 percentage points more than last year. People also often connect to the internet via laptop, tablet, and other mobile units such as smartwatch, game console, and reading pad.

The survey measured the use of various activities on the internet and the results show that 79 percent of the population read news online and 67 percent used instant messaging. All activities are presented in the table below.

Despite an increase from 2018 in internet access, this year’s survey shows that more than 340 000 persons (4 percent of the population) in the 16 to 85 age group do not have access to the internet at home. The main reason that persons stated for not having access to the internet at home is that they lack the need, for example because it is not useful or interesting. This year’s survey shows that 2 percent of Sweden’s population does not have access to the internet at home because they do not know how to use it.

More internet use also means more risks

Masses of information are handled digitally on a daily basis. There are incidents of security threats online. The survey shows that, in the past year, nearly 3 million persons have been subjected to ‘phishing’, that is, received e-mails from fraudsters, and that more than 1.2 million persons have been subjected to ‘pharming’, that is, have been redirected to fake websites that requested personal information.

In the first quarter 2019, 65 percent of the population purchased goods and services online. Shopping online is increasingly common and the transactions are increasingly large. Despite this, 12 percent of Sweden’s population has never purchased goods or services over the internet. The main reasons that people stated were that they want to see the product in real life, they have concerns about making payments online, or privacy concerns. In the past year, more than 230 000 persons in Sweden have been subjected to fraud in connection with purchases of goods or services online.

Some activities on the internet were avoided by internet users in the past year due to security concerns. The survey results show that security concerns was the most common reason stated that kept internet users from providing personal information on social or work-related networking sites (35 percent of the population).