In 2019, Brazil had nearly 40 million people with no internet access, says IBGE

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazil had 39.8 million people with no internet connection by late 2019. The figure represents 21.7% of the population over the age of 10.

The figures are from the National Continuous Household Sample Survey (Pnad C), with a survey conducted in the 4th quarter of 2019, released on Wednesday (14) by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).

A year earlier, the number of Brazilians who did not have access to the World Wide Web was 45.9 million, which corresponded to 25.3% of the population aged 10 years or more.

In one year, the number of internet users in Brazil increased by 6.1 million people. There were 143.5 million people connected to the Internet at the end of 2019 (78.3%).

Data from the Pnad’s Information and Communication Technologies (TIC) supplement give an overview of how many people are connected to the internet and devices most commonly used to access the network.

Internet access

The number of people connecting to the internet in Brazil has been growing, according to IBGE. In 2019, 78.3% of people aged 10 years or older (143.5 million) had connected to the net.

In 2016, that number was 64.7% of the population, while in 2017, it was 69.8%, and in 2018 it was 74.7%.

Among those who did not access the internet, most claimed not to know how to use it (43.8%) or had no interest (31.6%). These people also said that the internet was expensive (11.9%), as was the equipment (6.1%).

The most connected regions are

Midwest: 84.6%
Southeast: 83.8%.
South: 81.8%.
north: 69.2%
Northeast: 68.6%

In 2019, the proportion of connected women was higher than that of men: 78.3% had access, while the rate for men was 77.1%.

The most connected age group is between 20 and 24 years old: 92.7% of this group accessed the internet. Brazilians aged 60 and older had the lowest rate, at 45% – a jump from 38.7% in 2018.

Income gap

The average real per capita income in households where there was internet use was R$1,527, almost double the income of those who did not use the network, which was R$728.

“The large difference between these two incomes was observed in all major regions,” IBGE said.

Cell phone as the main device

The cell phone is the number one device for accessing the Internet in Brazil. In 2019, the device was used by 98.6% of Internet users. See the comparison with other devices:

cell phone: 98.6%;
computer: 46.2%;
television: 31.9%;
tablet: 10.9%.

The total number of households that had a computer decreased. It was 41.7% in 2018 and 40.6% in 2019.

In 2019, 148.4 million people aged 10 and older had a cell phone for personal use (81.0% of the population in this age group). The percentage is slightly higher than estimated in 2018 (79.3%).

Among the people who did not have a cell phone, 27.7% claimed that the device was expensive; 22.6%, lack of interest in having one; 21.9% that they did not know how to use it; and 16.4% they used to use someone else’s device.

Exchanging messages is the favorite use

Most people pointed out that exchanging messages is the main purpose of using the Internet. Communication via voice or video calls came in second place:

sending or receiving text, voice, or picture messages via apps: 95.7%;
chat by voice or video call: 91,2%;
watching videos, movies, and series: 88.4%;
sending or receiving e-mails: 61.5%.

Connection at home

The use of dial-up internet in Brazil is almost nonexistent, according to the IBGE. Only 0.2% of people connect to the net this way.

Most households use fixed broadband and mobile broadband (3G and 4G). From 2018 to 2019, in households where there was internet use, the percentage of households with both fixed and mobile broadband connection rose from 56.3% to 59.2%.

Households that used only mobile broadband connection went from 23.3% to 21.4% from one year to the next. In those that only used a fixed broadband connection, the variation was from 19.0% to 18.1%.

In total, 77.9% of households had fixed broadband, and 81.2% had mobile broadband. See the numbers per region:

North: fixed 55% / mobile 88.6%;
Northeast: fixed 80.4% / mobile 63.8%;
Midwest: fixed 77.3% / mobile 87.1%;
Southeast: fixed 79% / mobile 87.5%;
South: fixed 81% / mobile 82.4%.

Students

Students use the internet more: 88.1% of them connected to the internet in 2019. The number among non-students who accessed the net was 75.8%.

Despite this, access becomes different according to the education network:

98.4% of private network students used the internet;
83.7% of students in the public network connected to the net.
These differences are accentuated according to the region of the country. Considering only private network students, the percentage of Internet use was above 95.0% in all major regions.

See below the figures for the public network:

North: 68.4%;
Northeast: 77%;
Midwest: 88.6%;
South: 90.5%;
Southeast: 91.3%.

Among the students who didn’t have a cell phone, 91% were from public schools. The main reason for not having the device was the cost (41.2%), followed by the allegation that they used to use someone else’s cell phone (28.7%).

Internet access was the greatest challenge in public school students’ learning in 2020
In the private network, the reasons were inverse: the use of someone else’s device had a higher weight (40.3%) than the device being expensive (20.0%).

Source: G1