USAGE OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES (ICT) IN HOUSEHOLDS AND BY INDIVIDUALS, 2025

Tendencies

• The number of households equipped with a computer and internet access did not significantly differ from the previous year.
• Computer and internet usage was at the last year’s level in all age groups.
• The share of online buyers was at the last year's level; 51% of internet users purchased goods and services online.

The survey results showed that the equipment of households with ICT in the Republic of Croatia did not change significantly compared to the previous year. The equipment of households with a computer and internet access in the previous four years shows little variation. There is a high probability that both indicators have reached saturation.

The distribution of computer users among age groups did not change significantly compared to the previous year. The youngest population still maintained the lead in computer usage and the number of users decreased proportionally with age. A similar trend was noticed in the employment status structure, where pupils and students, as the youngest group, were the most frequent computer users.

The number of internet users remained almost at last year's level, with a mild increase in the number of users observed in the oldest age group. As expected, the youngest population led in internet use, and the number of users decreased proportionally with age. A similar trend was observed in the structure by employment status – pupils and students, as the youngest group, used the internet most often.

The comparison of the results with data from the previous year showed that habits had not changed much. Individuals mostly used the internet for sending messages (94%), obtaining information on goods and services (90%), reading daily news and magazines (88%), using e-mail (86%), telephone and video calls (77%) and e-banking (77%).

The results of the survey show that online shopping was at last year's level, that is, 51% of internet users purchased goods and services online. When it comes to shopping habits, the most common purchases were clothing and footwear, event tickets, books, magazines and newspapers, and cosmetic products.

When asked if they had encountered any problems when shopping online, 30% of customers said that their purchased goods delivery was delayed, 9% of customers complained about the unavailability of warranty information, while 8% of customers complained that they were delivered a product they did not order or that they were delivered a damaged product.

For the first time, we have investigated the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools for the purpose of creating content such as text, images, video or programming code. The use of generative tools implies the use of chatbots such as ChatGPT, Grok, Gemini, DeepSeek, Copilot, LLaMa, Midjourney, DALL-E, Perplexity, etc. Internet users (32%) stated that they had used some of the generative artificial intelligence tools. They were most often used by the younger population aged from 16 to 34 years, and the number of users decreased proportionally with age. The distribution of results by type of purpose shows that artificial intelligence tools were very often used for private purposes (90%), almost half of users used them for educational purposes (49%), whereas they were the least used for business purposes (33%).

 

NOTES ON METHODOLOGY

The purpose of the statistical survey

Data shown in this First Release are estimates obtained through the IKT-DOM Survey. This is an annual survey on the usage of information and communication technologies (ICT) in households and by individuals. It provides information on computer and information literacy of the Croatian population. This survey measures the usage of computers and other information and communication technologies as well as the number of persons in the Republic of Croatia who use the internet and for what purposes. The data are an important source for conducting policies in the field of information society in the Republic of Croatia and in the EU.

Legal framework

The IKT-DOM Survey was conducted in 2025 according to Eurostat guidelines and on the basis of the Official Statistics Act (NN, Nos 25/20, 155/23 and 124/25 – corr.). The same surveys were conducted in all EU Member States and, therefore, data are internationally comparable. The international data are available at the following website address: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Digital_economy_and_society.

Concepts and definitions used in the Survey are in line with the EU Methodology for Statistics on the Information Society, 2025, and in particular with the basic Regulation (EU) 2019/1700 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 10 October 2019 establishing a common framework for European statistics relating to persons and households, based on data at individual level collected from samples, amending Regulations (EC) No 808/2004, (EC) No 452/2008 and (EC) No 1338/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council, and repealing Regulation (EC) No 1177/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council and Council Regulation (EC) No 577/98.

Observation units

The observation units are persons aged between 16 and 74 and their households. One person is randomly selected from each household to answer the questions in the questionnaire.

Reference period

All questions in the survey refer to the period of three months prior to the beginning of the survey.

Sampling frame and size

The basis for the sampling frame is the 2011 Census of Population, Households and Dwellings of the Republic of Croatia and directories of telephone companies. The sample size was 5 498 persons aged 16 to 74 at the time of data collection.

Data collection method

The data were collected by computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) and via the internet by using the online questionnaire (CAWI).

Response rate

Out of the total sample size (5 498 units), 5 396 units were eligible and 3 116 persons took part in the survey. It means that the response rate was 58% and the eligibility rate was 98%.

Definitions and explanations

E-commerce means buying or ordering goods and services over the internet. Typed e-mails are not considered e-commerce.

ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) are software and hardware used for data communication (e.g. computer, fax, the internet, fixed mobile phone).

Internet is a worldwide network of computers, communicating based on standard internet protocols that enable users to exchange textual and audio-visual information.

Artificial intelligence (AI) refers to systems that use technologies such as text handling, computer vision, speech recognition, natural language creation, machine learning or data analysis by machine learning in order to collect and use data to predict, recommend or determine the best activity to achieve specific goals. Artificial intelligence systems are divided into software (e.g., chatbots, business virtual assistants, face recognition systems, machine translators, machine learning-based analytical tools) and those embedded in some devices (e.g., autonomous robots to automate warehouse operations or production, autonomous drones for production control or package handling).

Abbreviations
EC	European Community
EU	European Union
Eurostat	Statistical Office of the European Union
NN	Narodne novine, official gazette of the Republic of Croatia

 

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