FRANKFURT: Around 6% of German citizens between the ages of 16 and 74 have never used the Internet, according to official data released on April 5.

The Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) said that this corresponded to about 3.8 million people who have never been online.

The older the people, the higher the proportion of offliners: it is highest among 65- to 74-year-olds at about 21%; among 55- to 64-year-olds, the share is 8%, and under 55 years of age, 3% at most.

Destatis highlighted how life had become harder for citizens who live off the net in the past two years, given how many services moved online during the coronavirus pandemic, from appointments to deliveries to digital vaccination certificates.

Across the European Union, the average figures for offline users was 8% last year, but there is a large amount of variation between countries.

According to Eurostat, in Ireland, the Scandinavian countries, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, the proportion of 16- to 74-year-olds who have never used the Internet is below 5%.

The highest proportions were in Greece with 20%, followed by Bulgaria and Portugal.

According to estimates by the UN’s International Telecommunication Union 37% of the world’s population have never used the Internet - some 2.9 billion people worldwide.

 - dpa