European counties enlarged the Internet usage in 2008

It is the summary result of the "Internet usage in 2008. Households and individuals" report held by the Statistical Office of the European Communities and published in Eurostat. 

The Internet and the online activities become more popular worldwide. And even the global financial downturn didn't affect much habit of online users. And recent survey proved it one more time. It shows that among top three states that have the highest number of online banking users are Norway, where 75 percent of internet customers that used such activities. Then Finland followed with 72 percent of internet users. And the Netherlands take the third place in the leading trio with 69 percent. However, there are some countries of European Union have less results on online banking popularity. The countries where online banking is least popular among internet users are Bulgaria, Romania and Greece, where online banking is taken up by 1 percent, 2 percent and 5 percent of internet users, respectively.

The survey also covers the individual group of internet users interested in online banking services and activities. It notes that 29 percent of individuals aged 16 to 74 of 27 EU countries membership; including Norway, Iceland and Croatia are common with online banking services and activities and prefer using Internet for several reasons. They use Internet to interact with public authorities. Also health related information is among the main topics being searched through the Internet. 

Moreover, according to the survey around 25 percent of EU Internet users ordered goods and services online, while an additional 15 percent leveraged online information to search and apply for jobs.