Internet penetration rate in Portugal 2023, by age

Younger generations seem to be incapable of living offline. This is illustrated by the fact that, in 2023, in Portugal, the totality of people aged between 16 and 24 years used the internet. Internet usage penetration rate diminished as age progressed. Therefore, 99 percent of people with 25 to 34 years used the internet, while 98 percent of those between the ages of 35 and 44 did so too. This value decreased to 53 percent when referring to people with 65 to 74 years. In total, the internet was used by almost 86 percent of people residing in the country.

The number of internet users has increased in Portugal, with few gender or regional differences

Portugal experienced a slow but steady increase in the number of internet users. In 2013, there were less than seven million users, while, by 2023, they exceeded 8.7 million. In the same year, men were the ones presenting the highest internet penetration rate by gender, with almost 87 percent of them using the internet, versus 85 percent of women. Regional differences were also negligible during the same period, as all Portuguese regions presented a penetration rate between 82 and 92 percent. The metropolitan area of Lisbon was the region with the most internet users in the country. Northern Portugal, despite comprising the metropolitan area of Porto, was the national territory with the lowest share of internet users.

The Portuguese are online for several hours and prefer online communication

Of all the activities enabled by the internet, the Portuguese gave especial relevance to communicative pursuits in 2023. Exchanging instant messages was an activity performed by almost 92 percent of internet users, while 88 percent sent or received emails. Reading news, listening to music, and using banking services were also activities performed by far more than half of internet users in the country. On average, in 2022, the population of Portugal spent seven hours and 37 minutes using the internet. Of these, almost four hours were spent using a computer or a tablet, which demonstrated a slight preference over the use of the internet via mobile phones.