It took a few years after the internet began to spread in 1995 to the general public before it took off, but during the last years of the 1990s, millions of Swedes started to use the internet. In the year 2000, half of the Swedish people had access to the internet. In subsequent years, the spread leveled out but picked up again in the context of broadband deployment. Since then the spread has continued to a larger part of the population even though it seemed that in some years that spread might stall. Still, after twenty years, new internet users are still arriving. Over the past year, there have been around a hundred thousand new users1. But it is believed that around 1 million Swedes still do not use the internet 2.
How many do not use the internet at home? |
2010 |
1,5 million |
2011 |
1,3 million |
2012 |
1,2 million |
2013 |
1,1 million |
2014 |
1,0 million |
1. The network Digidel, which started in 2010 and was supported by .SE, libraries and public educational associations, aimed to get at least another 500,000 people to use the internet before the end of 2013. The number of non-users would be reduced from 1.5 million to 1 million. We can now see that the goal was reached. How much is due to Digidel is hard to say.
2. See Findahl 2013, A million Swedes do not want to use the internet