Over 80% of people use internet for shopping, banking and ordering - CSO

Email was the most popular online activity, used by 93% of internet users

Online shopping fell by 9 percentage points since last year, dropping to 71%

More than eight out of 10 people reported using the internet for shopping, banking and ordering in 2022, figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) have revealed.

Launching their 2022 Household Digital Consumer Behaviour report this morning, the agency found that 80% of people used online shopping, banking and booking services this year, with email remaining the most popular internet activity, used by 93% of people.

Increasing by over ten percentage points since 2021, internet banking was the second most popular internet activity, used by 90% of people.

Online shopping fell by 9 percentage points since last year, dropping to 71%, with clothes, shoes, and accessories remaining the most popular online purchases.

80% of men reported purchasing goods online, up by 2% since 2021, while the number of women buying online fell by one percentage point to 82% in the same period.

Internet users in Dublin were the most likely to shop online at 87%, followed by 84% of digital consumers in the South-East. Those in the midlands were the least likely to shop online, at just 70%.

Ready-made food purchases also saw significant growth, rising from 50% to 58% in 2022.

Almost one in seven internet users reported renting accommodation online, from apartments to holiday homes via a private person through apps like Airbnb, growing massively from just 4% in 2021.

Commenting on these figures, Maureen Delamere, Statistician in the Social Analysis Division said, "There were varying levels of COVID-19 restrictions in place in the first half of 2022. The pandemic resulted in greater use of ICT and the internet, and, at times, different patterns of digital consumer behaviour."

"At an overall level, more than nine in ten (92%) persons aged 16 years and older used the internet within the previous three months. Just 1% had used the internet but not recently and only 7% had never used the internet."