In an age so overwhelmingly dominated by internet technology, it is, perhaps, surprising to find that more than a fifth of Irish people have never used the web.
According to a Eurostat survey on internet usage and penetration, published today, 21 per cent of people in Ireland aged 16-74 admitted to never having been online, down from 42 per cent recorded in a similar survey in 2006.
This was slightly below the European Union average of 24 per cent.
Sweden had the lowest number of people who have never used the internet at 5 per cent and Romania the highest at 54 per cent.
The survey, which asked respondents about internet access as well as frequency of use, found that 78 per cent of Irish households had access to the internet in the first quarter of 2011,
This compared with only 50 per cent recorded in the first quarter of 2006.
The EU average for the same period was 73 per cent of households enjoyed internet access compared to 49 per cent in the same period of 2006.
The survey found household internet access varied from 94 per cent in the Netherlands to 45 per cent in Bulgaria.
The share of Irish households with broadband internet connections rose from 13 per cent in 2006 to 65 per cent in 2011, but still ranked below the EU average of 68 per cent.
Sweden again had the highest rate of broadband internet connection at 86 per cent and Romania the lowest at 31 per cent.
A survey by the Central Statistics Office, Information Society and Telecommunications in Households , published last week, indicated that 81 per cent of households in Ireland now have a computer, an increase of 16 per cent since 2007.
