The Well Connected European Consumer

How does the European consumer differ from other regions in its use of information and communications technology.   Infrastructure.  Statistics.

Europe's Well-Connected Consumers  By David Pringle 
Communications of the ACM, April 2019, Vol. 62 No. 4, Page 36
10.1145/3309921

Home to approximately 740 million people, many of them affluent, Europe spends a lot of money on information and communications technology (ICT). The European ICT market was worth $769 billion in 2017 (up 1.8% from 2016).a

Yet, despite the best efforts of the European Union (EU), Europe is not one market. There are major cultural differences and economic disparities between northwest Europe and southeast Europe. Whereas Germany, the U.K., the Nordics, and the Netherlands tend to attract migrants from all over the world, many countries on the eastern and southern rims of Europe are seeing an exodus of young people and low birth rates. Indeed, the continent as a whole is aging: One fifth of the people in the 28 members of the EU (the EU28) are now 65 or over, compared with 17% in 2007.b In the U.S., the equivalent figure is 15% and in China 11%.c

The vast majority of Europeans are online. It is relatively cost-effective for the region's telecoms companies to provide connectivity: Europe is densely populated and heavily urbanized—three quarters of the EU population lives in cities, towns, or suburbs. Across the EU28, more than 87% of households had Internet access and 85% broadband Internet access at the end of 2017.d Moreover, the broadband is relatively quick: Of the top 50 countries ranked by broadband speeds worldwide, 36 of them are in Europe.e Sweden has the fastest broadband in Europe, offering an average speed of 46Mbps. However, interference between Wi-Fi networks is common in the many districts where people live in apartment buildings, while cellular networks can also be heavily congested in city centers. .... "