A survey on Internet use in Brazil released last week revealed very curious data and consumption habits of the population. The Brazilian surfs the web mainly on his cell phone to communicate through messaging apps, like WhatsApp – meanwhile, email is less and less used. Almost 70% of households have access to the Internet, but access to mobile broadband is already higher than fixed in the country.
These numbers were raised in 2016 by the National Continuous Household Sample Survey, carried out by IBGE with Brazilians aged 10 and over. Check out more important facts in the list below.
4G Internet in Brazil slows down in global ranking of connections
Most Internet access is done by cell phone – Photo: Lucas Mendes / dnetc
1. Over 90% of people use the Internet to exchange messages
Sending and receiving text, voice or image messages via apps (and not by email) was the reason 94.2% of Brazilians used the Internet during the survey’s reference period. The second most common purpose for the web was to watch videos (includes programs, series and films), which has 76.4% of users. In third place, with 73.3%, conversations came by voice or video calls, through messengers such as Skype, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. The exchange of e-mails comes only in fourth place, with 69.3%.
Exchange of messages leads the use of the Internet by Brazilians – Photo: Disclosure / IBGE
2. Almost 70% of households have access to the Internet
The survey indicates that there is still a long way to go before all homes have access to the world wide web. In 2016, only 69.4% of permanent private households had Internet. The Southeast region dominates the list, with web browsing in 76.7% of homes. The Northeast, on the other hand, has the lowest index, with a network in only 56.6% of households.
Northeast is the region with the lowest percentage of Internet access – Photo: Disclosure / IBGE
3. 33% access the Internet only by cell phone
The mobile device is used by practically all Brazilians who browse the web: 94.6%. The second most popular device to access the network is the microcomputer, with 63.7%, followed by tablets (16.4%) and TV (11.3%).
Cell phone is the main device used to access the Internet in Brazil – Photo: Disclosure / IBGE
A curious data from the IBGE survey is that 33.4% of Brazilians on the Internet surf the web exclusively on their cell phones. “Cellular access is over 90% in all major regions. In addition to speed, the cell phone allows access to the Internet via public or free wireless networks, without requiring a data transmission network ”, explains the research manager, Maria Lucia Vieira.
4. Lack of interest is the main reason in households without Internet
Among Brazilian households, 30.6% do not have Internet. For 34.8% of households without a web, the lack of interest in the service is the main reason. Also according to the study, the South and Southeast regions present the greatest disregard for the Internet, where the index of «disinterest» exceeds 40%.
Lack of interest is the main cause behind the lack of Internet in Brazilian homes – Photo: Disclosure / IBGE
The second most popular justification, with 29.6%, was the expensive price of the access service. The issue of unavailability of the service in the home area affects 8.1% of the cases – a number that reaches 24.4% in the North of the country.
5. Dial-up Internet is still used by 0.6% of the population
For those who thought that the dial-up Internet was extinct (or even knew of its existence), believe me, it is still used in 0.6% of Brazilian households. The number, of course, is irrelevant given the domain of broadband (99.7%), but it is still a very curious fact.
6. Use of mobile broadband exceeds that of fixed broadband
Mobile broadband dominates throughout Brazil – Photo: Disclosure / IBGE
In a country where smartphones dominate web browsing, it is no big surprise that the use of mobile broadband (3G and 4G networks) exceeds that of fixed bandwidth: 77.3% versus 71.4%. Connection using fixed broadband only occurs in 21.2% of households, while exclusivity for mobile broadband occurs in 26.7% of households with Internet access.
7. Internet is more accessed by Brazilians aged 18 to 24 years old
Young people between 18 and 24 years old revealed to use the network more: more than 85% of people in this age group said they had accessed the Internet in the three months preceding the interview. Interestingly, women in this age group have a higher level of access than men of the same age: they are 87% and they, 83%.
Internet access is greater among young people aged 18 to 24 – Photo: Disclosure / IBGE
Elderly people aged 60 or over make up the lowest rate of access to the network: only 24.7% of them said they had surfed the Internet in the quarter prior to the mapping. «These results are an indication that, in the adult population, the advance in the use of the latest technologies has a slower impulse with increasing age», explains the research.
8. Brazilians with Higher Education have greater access to the network than those with incomplete Elementary Education
The education of Brazilians affects the rate of access to the Internet. The global computer network is accessed by 95.7% of those with complete higher education. The rate drops to 84.1% for those who have completed high school. The difference, however, is striking when it comes to those who have not completed elementary school: only 43.6% said they had used the Internet in the three months preceding the survey. That is, a difference of about 52% in relation to the population that completed college.
Education level makes a big difference in Internet access in Brazil – Photo: Disclosure / IBGE
9. A quarter of public school students do not access the Internet
Meanwhile, almost all students from private schools use the network – Photo: Disclosure / IBGE
Students represent 20.7% of the population over 10 years old, and 81.2% of them said they had accessed the Internet in the quarter preceding the survey (against 60.4% of the non-student contingent). But the survey showed, once again, that social disparity can be a barrier to surfing the web. The share of private school students who used the Internet was 97.4%, that is, almost all. Meanwhile, 75% of public school students use the network, indicating that a quarter of students do not have access.
10. Employed people use the network more than those without a job
The survey called «employed» people employed and «unemployed», the unemployed. The percentage difference in access to the network between employed and unemployed Brazilians was 22.6%. Interestingly, this difference was higher among women (28.1%) than among men (18.9%).
Difference is more than 20% in Internet use between employed and unemployed people – Photo: Disclosure / IBGE
