IRISH PEOPLE ARE better than other Europeans at buying and selling online with other countries according to new EU-wide research on digital habits.

Ireland exhibited much better rates of cross border e-commerce than the rest of the union, with 24 per cent of the population having bought online from other EU countries in the previous year, compared to an EU average of 12 per cent.

The initiative being shown extends to Irish businesses, with both SMEs and larger companies also comfortably ahead of the EU average for drumming up business form abroad.

PastedImage-49876 European Commission European Commission

Overall in many of the areas monitored Irish people were bang on the EU average in terms of digital skills. For example, those identified as having low or no digital skills make up about 46 per cent of the population in Ireland, just one point below the EU average of 47 per cent.

Broadband usage in Ireland is also roundabout on the European average according to the European Commission research, with 96 per cent of the total population having access to it compared to 97 per cent of Europeans. Subscriptions with high speed connections over 30 Mbps and 100 Mbsp were also above the EU average.

The main area where Ireland is lagging behind in broadband speeds is in the availability of 4G coverage. The figures for 2013 show that 35 per cent of Irish people had access to 4G compared to 59 per cent of Europeans

Irish providers Meteor, eMobile, Vodafone and Three have all introduced 4G services over the past 9 months meaning that the figure has increased.

PastedImage-27144 European Commission European Commission

Read: In 2016 there’ll be a new place for 500 students to live: Dublin’s Digital Hub >

Column: Digital innovation and enterprise needs to be nurtured at an EU level >

Making a difference

A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.

For the price of one cup of coffee each week you can make sure we can keep reliable, meaningful news open to everyone regardless of their ability to pay.

Support us Learn More