Technology and social life · Europe
Has the spread of social networks changed how often people meet socially?
Dashboard highlights · five cards
Swipe, scroll or use the arrows. Each square gives one finding, its time window and source.
Technology · selected observations · EU ages 16–74
Share using a mobile device to access the Internet.
+19.3 percentage points since 2016
Eurostat flags 2021 as a series break; the five observations are shown separately.
Technology · annual estimates · EU ages 16–74
Share of people reporting that they use the Internet every day or almost every day.
The chart below contains the annual series and lets you choose a shorter or longer period.
Social networks · 2025 · European Union
Share of each age group that participated in social networks.
The age gap compares population groups in one year; it does not show how the same people change as they age.
In-person contact · first to latest ESS wave
Change in people meeting socially at least weekly, in percentage points.
ESS values match the Atlas of Social Attitudes CSV export, checked September 25, 2026. Each wave surveys a different cross-section.
How to read these trends
The dashboard places changes in digital use beside a separate measure of in-person social contact.
These population trends cannot show whether technology changed an individual’s relationships. A stronger test needs linked measures of digital use and offline contact.
Read the methods and limits ↓Eurostat tracks daily Internet use, social-network participation and selected years of mobile access. The European Social Survey adds weekly in-person contact in Portugal and Spain. Different surveys and populations provide context, not a causal test.
Explore annual Eurostat estimates of daily Internet use and social-network participation. Mobile-device access is available for five survey years. These measures use the same population denominator, but describe different activities.
Vertical position is a share of the selected age group; horizontal spacing follows calendar year. Dashed segments cross years with no reported value. Mobile-access observations appear as separate points for 2016, 2018, 2021, 2023 and 2025. Squares mark Eurostat series breaks and hollow points mark estimates.
The mobile-access indicator has no age breakdown in this dataset and is available only for the full 16–74 population. Eurostat marks a time-series break for 2021; points are shown without connecting lines. Mobile access does not measure daily frequency or screen time. Social-network participation does not measure intensity.
The share of respondents who meet friends, relatives or colleagues socially at least once a week. Select an age group to show or hide it.
Horizontal spacing follows fieldwork year. Each point is an ESS round.
Horizontal spacing follows fieldwork year. Spain’s latest displayed wave is 2024. Spain’s 2022 wave was collected by web and paper questionnaires instead of face-to-face interviews, and the ESS lists this question among those affected by that change. Read the 2022 dip with care.
Percentage-point difference in weekly social contact between the first and latest displayed ESS waves. The line charts above show each wave on a 0–100% scale.
Share of the whole population within each age band who participated in social networks during the 2025 survey reference period.
Country values use the whole population in the 16–74 age band. The EU aggregate is a benchmark, not a country rank. Norway and Switzerland are shown separately.
It sets up a research question. It does not measure technology’s effect on an individual’s relationships or wellbeing.
The ESS asks how often people meet socially. Eurostat asks whether they participated in social networks online. The surveys do not link the same respondents, and their age bands differ.
ESS values come from the Atlas of Social Attitudes. All 88 values match its CSV export to within 0.05 points, checked September 25, 2026 with scripts/check_atlas.py. They have not been reconciled against raw ESS microdata. Eurostat values come directly from its public API and retain nulls and observation flags.
ESS Round 10 covered a period of pandemic restrictions. Spain was one of nine countries that switched to web and paper questionnaires that round; Portugal kept face-to-face interviews. The ESS comparison of Rounds 9 and 10 lists the social-contact question among those affected by the switch (ESS mode report). Treat Spain’s 2022 value, and changes around 2020–2022, cautiously.
The ESS digital-social-contacts module asks how people use digital communication to stay in touch. Its 2020–2022 fieldwork adds direct questions about online contact, while pandemic conditions and mixed survey modes limit simple comparisons.
Link technology use, offline contact and wellbeing at the respondent level, or compare country-year changes with a credible design. Control for age, income, health, pandemic conditions and survey mode before making causal claims.