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21 December 2017
Citizens, enterprises and ICT Year 2017
The integrated information framework on the use of ICT technologies by citizens and enterprises shows an
increasingly widespread and advanced use of these technologies in economic activities and in everyday life.
However, a significant gap is persisting compared to other EU countries, especially for the use of
eCommerce as a channel for the purchase and sale of goods and services.
In 2017 the estimated share of households accessing the Internet through broadband, with a preference for
a fixed connection (ADSL, optical fibre, etc.) rises to 69.5 % from 67.4% in 2016.
The share of companies with at least 10 persons employed connecting through mobile broadband continues
to rise: from 63.8% in 2016 to 70.9% in 2017.
The share of companies accessing the Internet through fixed broadband and reporting Internet connection
download speeds of at least 30 Mbit/s is increasing from 16.5% in 2016 to 23.7% in 2017
65.3% of the persons aged 6 and over were connected to the Web during the last 12 months (63.2% in
2016), while around 47.6% surf it every day. Age continues to be the main discriminating factor in the use of
the internet: young people use it at the most (more than 92% of 15 -24 year -olds) but the growth is
significant among the 55-59-year-olds (62.7% to 68.2%) as well.
Smartphones and cloud services allow the connection to the Web and access to files always and
everywhere: 44.6% of Internet users use smartphones while away from home or from the workplace; 32%
use cloud services for saving documents or other files for private use.
The share of companies with at least 10 employees using social media is still growing: from 39.2% in 2016
to 44.0% of the current year.
The spread of digital skills within enterprises remains limited: only 16.2% of those with at least 10 pe rsons
employed have specialist ICT staff and only 12.9% organize IT training activities.
Among the persons who used the internet in the last 3 months, 18.8 used a dedicated websites or apps
(such as AIRBNB) to arrange an accommodation and almost one third published their own web content.
Slowly share of enterprises selling online continues to increase (12.5%, 11% in 2016 and 10% in 2015). The
use of intermediaries for eCommerce is very significant: 30% of the enterprises that sold via the web in the
previous year made at least three quarters of the web turnover through websites or app of intermediaries.
In a year, Internet users who shop online rose from 50.5 to 53%. Among those who did not shop over the
last 3 months, 43.2% looked for information on goods or services and/or goods sold online.
The gap between large and small enterprises is large in the level of digitalization measured by the
composite indicator Digital intensity indicator which, in the case of at least ‘high’ level of digitalisation, is
equal to 11% for small businesses and reaches 47% for largest ones.
IT security is considered as a priority by enterprises for both current technological investments and for future
ones, as indicated by 44.9% and 32.3% of companies respectively.
For the immediate future (2017-2018 biennium), enterprises consider public facilities and funding, as well as
access to broadband infrastructure and connections, the main drivers for digitization and strengthening
competitiveness. Less significant is the indication of a specific digitization strategy for the company.
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E-Commerce by European Countries. Year 2017
For more details please refer to the Italian version
Contact persons for
Citizens and ICTs:
Laura Zannella ([email protected]).
phone +39 06 4673.7566
Rita Fornari ([email protected])
phone +39 06 4673.7352
Contact persons for
Enterprises and ICTs:
Alessandra Nurra ([email protected])
phone +39 06 4673.6104
Sergio Salamone ([email protected])
phone +39 06 4673.6261
Istat – National Institute of Statistics Via Cesare Balbo, 16 00183 ROMA