Italian peoples of saints, poets and navigators. But not on the internet. Or at least not yet all, according to those revealed by the Istat report which claims that almost 22 million Italians (excluding children up to 6 years of age) have never used the Internet: to be precise, 21 million 994 thousand, or 38,3% of the resident population. However, the population of the web is on the rise: in 2014, the share of households that have access to the Internet at home and a broadband connection increased compared to the previous year (respectively from 60,7% to 64% and from 59,7% to 62,7%).
But there are still over 20 million people who have never gone online. The data must obviously be considered inclusive of the elderly population and territorial differences, even if it shows a certain gap with other European countries. The largest shares of non-users are in fact concentrated in the older age groups and those leaving the world of work: the percentage of non-users between the ages of 65-74 is 74,8% and rises to 93,4% among those over seventy-five .
However, the percentage of non-users among the very young is also high (1 million 518 thousand between 6-10 years of age) who, although defined as "digital natives", more than 50% do not use the network. This happens above all in families with parents who do not use the internet, while where parents influence their children's behavior technologically, the percentage of children between 11 and 14 who do not use the web drops to 6,7%. In any case, this is the most surprising data, which determines the real gap with Europe. In fact, considering the percentage of individuals between the ages of 16 and 74 who have connected regularly to the Internet, it emerges that compared to a European average of 72% and countries such as the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Sweden and Denmark which have reached levels close to saturation, the Italy ranks only third from last in the international ranking, with a value equal to 56% (equivalent to that recorded for Greece). And this trend is also recorded among young people aged 16-24, who should represent the most "included" segment in the digital world.
Then there are also territorial differences: the geography of the degree of non-use shows a greater prevalence of non-users in the South and in the Islands (45,5% and 43% respectively), while in the Centre-North about a third of the population does not sail Network. Gender and generational differences are still strong: 59,3% of men use a personal computer, compared to 50,2% of women, 62,3% of men surf the Internet and 52,7% of women. However, the main users of personal computers and the Internet remain young people aged 15-24 (respectively over 83% and over 89%).
A curiosity: among the causes of non-use identified by Istat, the first place is not the impossibility or inability to connect but the lack of appreciation and interest in this tool: 28,7% replied thus, more than those who admitted total ignorance of the Internet (27,9%) or lack of ability to use it (27,3%).
