CEPIT: Information Society Potentials Underdeveloped

21 October 2006

Approximately a quarter of Serbian population (one million and a half, 24.2%) uses internet, shows the survey conducted by the Centre for Study of Information Technology (CEPIT), an institution working under the auspices of the Belgrade Open School.

Compared to the available data on 1999, the number of internet users in the country has increased fivefold. However, CEPIT believes the rise is not satisfactory, having in mind that it is far from the dramatic growth rates common for the other countries in initial stadiums of internet use.

The survey registered disturbing facts regarding the sex and age structure of internet users. Namely, internet is used by 33% of men and only 17% of women in Serbia. One half of the population between 15 and 29 years of age uses the internet, compared with just 11% of people older than 50.

There is great discrepancy in Serbia in terms of number of households that own a computer (41%) and the number of internet users. Almost 77% of the persons included in the survey use dial-up access.

Another indicator of how underdeveloped are the potential of information society in Serbia is the finding that 23.3% said that they don�t use the internet because they can�t afford it. Almost one half of the polled citizens said that they don�t use the internet because they don�t need it, while 24.9% don�t know how to use a computer. More than a half of those that don�t use internet don�t intend to start using it in the future, especially among the population above 50 years of age.

CEPIT believes that poverty and political situation which doesn�t see modernization of the state as a priority are the main reasons for such low growing rates of internet use. In their view, in addition to state action in technology development, Serbia needs greater participation of the private sector, liberalized telecommunications market, as well as greater number of electronic services and lower equipment prices.

For complete presentation of results of the survey, visit this link.