The latest data from Eurostat reveals that 11.1% of Greeks had never used the internet as of 2024, a figure that’s about twice the EU average of 5%.

This percentage puts Greece among the European Union countries with the highest rates of citizens who remain completely offline and highlights Greece’s digital divide between the haves and have nots.

According to Eurostat numbers, Croatia recorded the highest percentage of non-users at 13.54%, followed by Greece at 11.09%, Portugal at 9.77%, and Bulgaria at 9.32%.

While not an EU member, Turkey, also included in the Eurostat analysis, exhibits almost identical characteristics with Greece. Similarly, 11.20% of its population has also never used the internet.

This is in sharp contrast with EU countries like Norway and Netherlands where the internet was accessed by nearly 100% of individuals. Similarly, Luxembourg, Ireland, Finland reported that the percentage of individuals who have never used the internet hovered at just over 1%.

The Eurostat survey also collected data for ‘regular internet use’ defined as “individuals who used the internet, on average, at least once a week in the three months prior to the survey.”

Within the EU, 88% of respondents were regular internet users. Here too, the data reveals a different pattern for Greece, where only 85.48% of Greeks regularly using internet.

This figure is on par with countries like Bosnia and Herzegovina (85.91%), Albania (86.12%) and Turkey (86.72%) while individuals in countries like the Netherlands (99.22%), Norway (98.73%), Denmark (98.64%) and Ireland (98.57%) showed significantly higher internet use.

Over a ten-year period from 2014 to 2024, a “catching-up effect” was also observed in several countries including Greece, which were able to offer internet access to more and more households. Yet Greece still remains at the bottom of the list of countries whose households have access to the internet as of 2024.