The use of internet technologies in Ireland and Estonia

I am often asked “what is Estonia like?”. I usually respond with references to; the enchanting landscape, economic model and the magical strength of the Estonian Language.

If the questioner has a passing interest in a subject such as connectivity as social infrastructure, I might refer to ubiquity of WiFi.

Today I came across a release from Eurostat; Internet access and e-skills in the EU27 in 2007

The difference between adoption rates of technologies in Ireland and Estonia is revealing.

Here are the results for ie, ee and EU27. Draw your own conclusions:

Internet activities carried out, % of all individuals, 2007 Estonia EU 27 Ireland Use search engine 61 57 55 Send mail with attachment 59 50 47 Use Anti-Virus SW 23 30 16 download and install software 26 27 15 Use newsgroup or forum 43 24 12 Use VoIP 28 15 8 Use P2P 22 13 6 Create web pages 18 10 6

In the interests of research and debate I have uploaded all the data from Eurostat here

By looking at the very last table in the link above “Percentage of individuals who have carried out 5 or 6 of the Internet related activities” and taking only the results for “Percentage of individuals who used Internet, ever” then we encounter a rather remarkable picture of the degree of use of technology in Ireland and Estonia. These two societies are at opposite ends of the scale:

Ireland: 5 % (the lowest of the EU27)
Estonia: 41% (the highest of the EU27)