France leads Europe in Internet usage - study

29 Nov 2005

France leads the rest of Europe in the numbers of hours spent online by Internet users, followed by Britain and Spain, a study revealed today.

The study by European Interactive Advertising Association (EIAA) showed that the French user now spends 13 hours a week online, compared with 11 each for Britain and Spain and a European average of 10-1/4 hours.

Italians spend the least time online with an average of only eight hours per week, according to the study which involved 7,000 random telephone interviews with 1,000 respondents across Europe.

It added that Europeans were now spending 17 percent more time online compared with 2004, and 56 percent more compared with the year before.

Television usage increased by just 6 percent year on year, with radio and newspapers rising by 14 percent and 13 percent respectively. Time spent reading magazines saw a 7 percent fall, the study by market research firms SPA and Synovate showed.

The study also revealed a new group of super Internet users across Europe, with 24 percent of the respondents spending more than 16 hours a week using the Internet and 69 percent online five or more days a week.

"The figures for broadband users are even more staggering, with nearly a third spending more than 16 hours per week online," the EIAA said in a statement.

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