According to the EU statistical office Eurostat, Bulgarians are the ones who use least Internet in the 27 EU member states. The statistics refer to persons aged 16-24, reported BTA.

Almost three quarters of young people in the EU25 used the internet at least once a week. In the EU25 in 2006, 73 per cent of persons aged 16-24 used the Internet on an average at least once a week, compared with 47 per cent for the total population.

The Netherlands (96 per cent), Denmark, Finland and Sweden (all 94 per cent) had the highest shares of persons aged 16-24 using the Internet, while Malta (40 per cent), Bulgaria and Greece (both 47 per cent) had the lowest.

Looking at computer skills (computer skills surveyed included the ability to copy or move a file or folder; use copy and paste tools to duplicate or move information within a document; use basic arithmetic formula (add, subtract, multiply, divide) in a spreadsheet; compress files; connect and install new devices, e.g. a printer or a modem; write a computer program using a specialised programming language), the share of persons aged 16-24 years reporting high skills was also higher than for the total population in all Member States, with an average in the EU25 in 2006 of 39 per cent and 22 per cent respectively.

For Bulgaria these figures are 14 per cent and 6 per cent respectively. The Member States registering the largest shares of young people with high computer skills were Slovenia (65 per cent), Luxembourg (61 per cent), Denmark and Austria (both 58 per cent).

The third indicator is buying on the Internet: 26 per cent of the population aged 16-24 in the EU25 in 2006 had ordered goods or services over the Internet in the last 3 months, while the corresponding rate for the total population was 21 per cent. For Bulgaria these figures are 3 per cent and 2 per cent respectively. Germany (48 per cent) had the highest share of young people buying over the Internet, followed by Sweden (45 per cent), Denmark and the United Kingdom (both 41 per cent).