Mobile internet usage in Europe - statistics & facts
In the constantly evolving digital landscape, mobile internet has acquired strategic importance. The availability and speed of mobile internet has come to define a global regions’ competitiveness in the market, with the 5G race interesting virtually all countries worldwide.
In recent years, the share of people in Europe who have been accessing the internet via mobile devices has experienced a constant increase, going from 70 percent of the total population in 2019 to more than 80 percent in 2022. As of 2022, Denmark, Norway, and the United Kingdom, ranked as the countries with the highest mobile internet penetration rate in Europe, with over 90 percent of their population using mobile devices to navigate the internet.
Mobile internet usage in the region has been favored by the implementation of consumer-friendly policies like the elimination of extra roaming charges across the EU, as well as considerable investments to improve mobile connectivity networks. 5G mobile connections are still expected to account for almost 90 percent of mobile connections in Europe in 2030, the costs for 5G enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) deployments in the region was of around 60 billion euros in 2022.
The mobile app consumer spending in Europe reached over 19 billion U.S. dollars in 2022, with over 11 billion U.S. dollars generated from the Apple App Store. Travel apps, which were among the categories that experienced a decrease in usage during the COVID19 pandemic, are in recovery. During the second quarter of 2022, mobile users in Europe downloaded approximately 107 million travel apps, down from the 120 million travel apps downloaded during the third quarter of 2021, when the summer months revived European users' thirst to travel despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
In recent years, the share of people in Europe who have been accessing the internet via mobile devices has experienced a constant increase, going from 70 percent of the total population in 2019 to more than 80 percent in 2022. As of 2022, Denmark, Norway, and the United Kingdom, ranked as the countries with the highest mobile internet penetration rate in Europe, with over 90 percent of their population using mobile devices to navigate the internet.
Mobile internet usage in the region has been favored by the implementation of consumer-friendly policies like the elimination of extra roaming charges across the EU, as well as considerable investments to improve mobile connectivity networks. 5G mobile connections are still expected to account for almost 90 percent of mobile connections in Europe in 2030, the costs for 5G enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) deployments in the region was of around 60 billion euros in 2022.
Mobile internet users in numbers
Mobile internet users in Central and Western Europe were estimated to reach over 290 million by the end of 2023, an increase of 10 percent compared to the 261 million users the region was registering in 2019. By comparison, the number of mobile internet users in Southern Europe is expected to increase by 21 percent in the same period. Mobile internet in Northern Europe is expected to reach 93 percent of the region’s population in 2028, as mobile internet users in the region are forecasted to increase by roughly 10 percent points between 2019 and 2028. In the same period, Eastern Europe is projected to have the fastest-growing mobile digital population, going from 197 million to 217 million mobile internet users.Mobile activities and smartphone usage
The possibility to access communication and social interactions on the go is one of the key features of having access to mobile internet. Engagement levels on mobile social apps in Europe experienced a sudden increase between 2019 and 2020, as a secondary consequence of the global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the slowly normalizing global conditions, 28 percent of European users reported spending between 30 minutes and one hour daily on social media apps in 2022.The mobile app consumer spending in Europe reached over 19 billion U.S. dollars in 2022, with over 11 billion U.S. dollars generated from the Apple App Store. Travel apps, which were among the categories that experienced a decrease in usage during the COVID19 pandemic, are in recovery. During the second quarter of 2022, mobile users in Europe downloaded approximately 107 million travel apps, down from the 120 million travel apps downloaded during the third quarter of 2021, when the summer months revived European users' thirst to travel despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
