Internet penetration: Swiss in European top group
The latest report from the Net-Metrix-Base Internet usage study shows that, when compared to other European countries, Switzerland ranks among the leaders in terms of Internet access at home or at work or school.
Behind countries such as Denmark, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, Switzerland is in sixth place, as Net-Metrix writes in a statement: Just under 90 percent of the population over the age of 14 have Internet access. This figure is well above the European average of 73 percent. In recent years, there has been a stable upward trend in access penetration in Switzerland.
A look at the Swiss language regions reveals that French-speaking Switzerland in particular has seen the greatest change in Internet access over the past two years, with a 4.5 percent increase. On a par with the German-speaking Swiss, nine out of ten French-speaking Swiss now have access to the Internet at home or at their place of work/education. Lagging behind is the Italian-speaking part of the country, which can show a clear upward trend, but with 82 percent Internet penetration has not quite reached the level of the rest of Switzerland.
Looking at the economic regions, the biggest changes since 2009 have been in Zug (+7.2 percent), the Bernese Oberland (+6.7 percent) and Lower Valais (+6.6 percent). Fribourg, Geneva, Vaud and Jura followed in second place (each with growth of between 4 percent and 5 percent). The economic areas with the highest internet penetration are Thurgau (94.2 percent), Zug (93.4 percent), Aargau and Schaffhausen (92.4 percent and 92.3 percent).
