Pierre BERRET
june 2008
16 p.

The analysis by the DEPS of the Community surveys, coordinated, harmonised and published by Eurostat, on households’ and individuals’ ICT use offers a comparative picture of and reveals trends in ICT equipment and Internet access patterns in EU-27 households according to their socio-demographic characteristics. It casts light on the stepped-up digital practices of individuals, while explaining the factors behind ICT development, such as cultural habits, electronic trade in cultural products and the close connection between ICT access and electronic trade in the European Union. Proof is given of converging trends and factors governing Internet, television and telephone use – such as availability, time spent, generation, degree of practice. In this topography of ICT access and use in the EU, France occupies an in-between place. Whereas it ranks somewhat lower than the EU average as regards access and mobile phone use, it ranks higher than average where uses and electronic trade are concerned.