80% of people with disabilities have used the internet in 2024

According to the latest Eurostat data for 2024, 80% of people with disabilities in the EU have used the internet. This is a significant achievement against the backdrop of the EU's drive towards digital inclusion, but deeper analysis shows that major differences still remain depending on the degree of disability and type of online activity.

The lowest engagement is observed among people with severe disabilities: 82.3% of them went online at least once in 12 months. In comparison, among people with moderate disabilities, this proportion was 89%, and among those without disabilities - 95.2%. Thus, the gap between the two extreme groups reaches 12.9 percentage points.

This digital divide is particularly pronounced in certain areas of internet use. For example, only 19.5% of people with severe disabilities used the internet for online learning - this is half as many as those without disabilities (35.8%). Use of online banking is also lower: 51% compared to 69.3% for people without a disability.

Interestingly, it is people with disabilities who are more likely to search for medical information on the Internet. Thus, 50.9% of users with severe disabilities and 59.1% with moderate disabilities searched online for health-related information. Among non-disabled users, this figure was only 58.4%, which probably reflects the greater need for information among people with chronic or limiting conditions.

For video or phone calls, 55.6% of people with severe disabilities and 64.7% with moderate disabilities used the internet to communicate, compared to 75.3% among other users.