Statistical Office survey: 80% of Serbian households have an internet connection, 49% have a laptop

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In Serbia, more than 80% of households have an internet connection, almost half have a laptop computer, while a survey by the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia (RZS) shows that 73.1% of homes have a desktop computer, an increase of one percent compared to last year.

The share of computers in households varies by region, with 85.4 percent in Belgrade, 72.8 percent in Vojvodina, 66.7 percent in Sumadija and Western Serbia, and 66.3 percent in Southern and Eastern Serbia.

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Differences can be observed when comparing the number of computers in urban and other parts of Serbia, 79.5 percent versus 62.1 percent.

Compared to last year, this gap has widened slightly, the survey shows.

The growth rates of computers in urban and other parts of Serbia are in favor of this, with a growth rate of 1.3 percent recorded in cities, while this growth in the rest of the country compared to last year is 0.3 percent.

The differences in the presence of computers in households is visible in the structure of households by their monthly income.

Most computers are owned by households with a monthly income over of 600 euros (94.3 percent), while the share of households with  an income up to 300 euros is only 54 percent.

For households with an income of more than 600 euros, the increase is 6.4 percent, while for households with an income of 300 to 600 euros, there was a decrease of 0.4 percent compared to last year.

For households with an income of less than 300 euros, the drop is 0.8 percent.

The RZS survey also shows that 97.9 percent of households in Serbia own a TV set, while 93.7 percent have a mobile phone.

Laptops are owned by almost half of all households (49 percent), up 1.4 percent from last year and 5.3 percent from 2017.

In Serbia, 80.1 percent of households have internet access, an increase of 7.2 percent from last year and 12.1 percent from 2017.

Most internet connection are found in Belgrade, followed by Vojvodina, Sumadija and Western Serbia, and finally in Southern and Easternern Serbia. As with household computers, statisticians say, there is a big gap in this category.

More than two-thirds of citizens have used a computer in the last three months, but as many as 21.7 percent have never used one.

Data shows, however, that the number of computer users increased by 4.4 percent from 2017, up 4.4 percent from 2017, and 5.6 percent from 2016.

Among computer users, 58.2 percent have secondary education, 19.5 have lower than secondary education, and 22.2 percent have higher education.

A gender analysis shows that in the last three months 75.6 percent of men and 68.3 percent of women have used a computer.

The survey also found that 93.7 percent of the population uses a mobile phone, while that figure was 92.6 percent last year.

INTERNET INSTEAD OF PERSONAL CONTACTS

An interesting point from the survey is that 37.5 percent of the internet population uses internet services instead of making personal contacts or visiting public institutions or administrative bodies.

It is reported that more than 1,550,000 persons use electronic public administration services.

More than a third of the internet population used the internet to obtain information from public institutions' websites, while 21.1 percent used them to download official forms.

Data also shows that more than 1,820,000 citizens have purchased or ordered goods or services online in the last year.

The majority buy or order clothing, sports goods and household goods online, according to the RZS survey.

(Telegraf.rs/Tanjug)