Geostat: 88.4% of Georgian households have internet access

According to the “Survey on Information and Communication Technologies Usage in Households” results of 2022, 88.4 percent of Georgian households have internet access, which is 2.3 percentage points higher compared to the previous year, reports the National Statistics Office of Georgia (Geostat).

According to Geostat, the share of households with internet access increased by 1.4 percentage points for urban and by 3.5 percentage points for rural areas and amounted to 92.8 and 82.4 percent, respectively. The value of this indicator by regions is highest in Tbilisi and Adjara A.R., 94.8 and 93.3 percent, respectively.

According to the survey results, 79.8 percent of the population aged 6 years and older has used the internet within the last 3 months, which is 2.4 percentage points higher compared to the same indicator of the previous year. The percentage of this indicator equals to 85.6 percent in urban and 70.9 percent in rural areas. This indicator is 79.5 percent for women and 80.2 percent for men. For different age groups, the indicator is highest among the “15-29” and equals to 98.7 percent.

As the agency notes, 92.8 percent of the population aged 15 years and older who used internet within the last 3 months, use internet every day or almost every day, 6.4 percent - at least once a week (but not every day), and 0.8 percent more rarely.

"According to the survey results, among the population aged 15 years and older, who used internet within the last 3 months, the main reasons for using internet are: participating in social networks (95.9%), telephoning over the internet/video calls over the internet (91.2%), seeking health-related information (51.4%), reading online news/newspapers/magazines (49.3%), finding information about goods and services (43.3%), internet banking (41.3%), sending/receiving e-mails (40.1%), downloading software or applications (other than games software) (17.7%) and looking for a job or sending/submitting a job application (14.1%).

23.8 percent of population aged 15 years and older, who used internet within the last 12 months, have purchased or ordered goods or services. This figure varies by type of settlement: in urban areas – 28.8 percent and in rural areas – 14.3 percent. The values by gender are 26.3 percent for women, 21.0 percent for men. The values differ among age groups: 37.7 percent in “15-29”, 22.0 percent in “30-59” and 8.0 percent in “60 years and older”.

99.0 percent of internet users aged 15 years and older, who used internet within the last 3 months, have used a mobile device (mobile phone, laptop, tablet, etc.) to connect to the wireless Internet. This indicator is 99.1 percent for women and 98.8 percent - for men. Among the age groups, the highest value is observed for the population “15-29” (99.8%).

According to the survey results, 60.3 percent of households have a computer. The value of this indicator was 70.7 percent in urban areas and 46.1 percent in rural areas. Among the regions, the highest value was observed in Tbilisi and Ajara AR., 73.6 percent and 62.7 percent, respectively.

54.4 percent of the population aged 6 years and older have used a computer in the last 3 months. The values of indicator differ by type of settlement: 63.3 percent in urban and 40.6 percent in rural areas. This indicator is 53.6 percent for women and 55.4 percent for men. Among the age groups, the highest share of computer users is in the population of “6-14” and equals to 80.7 percent.

74.0 percent of the population aged 15 years and older, who used computer within the last 3 months, use computer every day or almost every day, 17.9 percent - at least once a week and 8.1 percent more rarely.

According to the survey results, 88.1 percent of the population aged 6 years and older owns a mobile phone, which is 1.8 percentage points higher than the previous year. This indicator increased by 2.1 percentage points in urban and by 1.3 percentage points in rural areas and amounted to 92.0 percent and 82.0 percent, respectively," the reports reads.