Scandinavia and the Netherlands are leading the way in the development and usage of the internet and mobile phones, according to the 2001 Yearbook from Eurostat.
Throughout the EU, between 1995 and 1999 the number of mobile phones per 100 inhabitants increased by seven times and the number of companies hosting internet access rose by more than four times. The countries which led this development in 1995 were Sweden, Finland and Denmark for mobile phones and the Netherlands and Denmark for internet hosts. This continued to be the case as we moved into the 21st century.
Top development of the mobile phones market was joined by Italy and Austria in 1999 and the most recent data show that the gaps between all the member states are now narrowing. In the case of internet hosts, though, there remains large differences between EU countries. According to data from the Internet Software Consortium (ISC), internet host numbers range from 1.3 per 100 inhabitants in Greece to 14.9 per 100 in Finland.
| Mobile phones and internet hosts: spread between 1995 and 1999 |
| |
Number of mobile phone subscribers per 100 inhabitants |
Number of internet hosts per 100 inhabitants |
| |
1995 |
1999 |
1995 |
1999 |
| |
|
|
|
|
| EU-15 |
5.7 |
39.1 |
0.5 |
2.3 |
| Belgium |
2.3 |
31.3 |
0.3 |
3.3 |
| Denmark |
15.8 |
49.9 |
1.0 |
6.4 |
| Germany |
4.6 |
28.6 |
0.6 |
2.0 |
| Greece |
2.6 |
31.4 |
0.1 |
0.7 |
| Spain |
2.4 |
31.2 |
0.1 |
1.2 |
| France |
1.8 |
36.3 |
0.3 |
2.1 |
| Ireland |
4.4 |
37.5 |
0.4 |
1.7 |
| Italy |
6.9 |
52.6 |
0.1 |
0.5 |
| Luxembourg |
6.6 |
48.7 |
0.5 |
2.2 |
| Netherlands |
3.3 |
43.8 |
1.1 |
6.1 |
| Austria |
4.3 |
52.5 |
0.7 |
3.2 |
| Portugal |
3.4 |
46.8 |
0.1 |
0.8 |
| Finland |
20.4 |
66.8 |
4.2 |
8.9 |
| Sweden |
23.0 |
57.9 |
1.6 |
5.9 |
| United Kingdom |
9.8 |
40.4 |
0.8 |
2.9 |
| United States |
12.9 |
31.7 |
2.3 |
19.6 |
| Japan |
9.3 |
45.0 |
0.2 |
2.1 |
| Bulgaria |
0.2 |
4.3 |
0.0 |
0.2 |
| Cyprus |
6.1 |
19.7 |
0.1 |
0.8 |
| Czech Republic |
0.5 |
18.9 |
0.2 |
1.2 |
| Estonia |
2.0 |
26.8 |
0.2 |
2.1 |
| Hungary |
2.6 |
16.1 |
0.2 |
1.2 |
| Latvia |
0.6 |
11.2 |
0.1 |
0.8 |
| Lithuania |
0.4 |
9.0 |
0.0 |
0.4 |
| Malta |
2.9 |
9.9 |
0.0 |
1.6 |
| Poland |
0.2 |
10.2 |
0.1 |
0.4 |
| Romania |
0.0 |
6.2 |
0.0 |
0.2 |
| Slovakia |
0.2 |
17.0 |
0.1 |
0.5 |
| Slovenia |
1.4 |
8.2 |
0.3 |
1.2 |
| Turkey |
0.7 |
11.7 |
0.0 |
0.1 |
| Source : Eurostat and ITU (International Telecommunications Union) |
According to the ISC, the number of internet hosts in the EU rose from 2.9 per 100 inhabitants in July 2000 to 3.4 per 100 in January 2001. The number of mobile phone subscribers was, according to the Informa Telecoms Group, at 62.5 per 100 inhabitants in the EU in 2000. The UK has 2.9 internet hosts per 100 people and 40.4 mobile phones per 100.
In 1999 the EU had a higher percentage of mobile phone users (39 subscribers per 100 inhabitants) than the United States (32) but lower than Japan (45). It also had slightly more internet connections than Japan: 2.3 hosts per 100 inhabitants in 1999, compared with 2.1 per 100 in Japan. However, internet host penetration was much lower than in the US, where there were already 20 hosts per 100 people by 1999, the Eurostat report says.
