47 percent of Turkish houses use Internet

ANKARA - Anatolia News Agency

The number of households using Internet in Turkey is increasing, according to data. Hürriyet photo

The rate of Turkish households with Internet access rose to 47.2 percent, with the 27.6 percent of households without Internet access saying they “did not need it,” according to the latest survey on information and communication technology usage among households for 2012 from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK).

The percentage of households with access to the Internet was 42.9 percent a year ago.

The rate of household having Internet access was 55.5 percent in urban areas and 27.3 percent in rural areas, according to the survey.

Some 60.5 percent of Istanbul households have Internet access at home.

The rate of computer use among individuals between the ages of 16 and 74 was 48.7 percent, and for Internet use it was 47.4 percent.

Most Turks use the Internet to read online newspapers and magazines, according to the survey.
More than 23.7 percent of Internet users aged 16-74 connect to the Internet wirelessly away from home or work via mobile phone or smartphone. Some 21.8 percent of Internet users aged 16-74 bought goods or services over the Internet for private purposes. The proportion of Internet customers was 18. 6 percent in the previous year.

For all age groups, proportions of computer and Internet usage for males were higher than females.