Smartphones used most for mobile internet access

Smartphones have ousted laptops as the most popular devices for mobile internet access in the Netherlands. Many young people, in particular, use smartphones almost daily to go online wherever they happen to be. The use of mobile internet access in the Netherlands is well above the average in the EU.

Smartphones replacing laptops

Many people in the Netherlands no longer have to be at home or at work to go online: six in ten Dutch internet users used mobile internet access. They mostly used smartphones to do this. Until 2010 laptops were more popular for mobile internet access than smartphones. Tablets, included in this survey for the first time in 2012, were used by 20 percent of mobile internet users.

Use of mobile internet

Many young people use mobile web almost daily

Young people, in particular, are more likely to access the mobile web. Just over seven in ten  12-24-year-olds use their smartphones to do this, most of them on almost a daily basis. Nearly half use (or also use) a laptop, and one quarter use a tablet.

Smartphones are also the most used device for mobile internet access in the age group 25-44 year. Internet users in the oldest age group are more likely to use a laptop than a smartphone, and about just as likely to use a tablet as a smartphone. People with a job are one and a half time more likely to use mobile access than the unemployed (66 versus 39 percent).

Mobile internet access by age, 2012

Dutch mobile access well above EU average

Alongside Sweden, the Netherlands has the highest percentage of internet users of the European Union (94 percent). At 54 percent, use of mobile access in the Netherlands is well above the EU average of 35 percent, but Sweden, Denmark and the United Kingdom have higher rates. Among neighbouring countries, the share of mobile internet users in Germany, 31 percent, is surprisingly low.

Use of internet and mobile internet by 16-74-year-olds in some EU countries, 2012

Janou Leenen and Ger Sleijpen