The number of Russian Internet users has slowed down in recent years. At the same time, Internet literacy levels have substantially increased.
MOSCOW, April 15, 2016. Russian Public Opinion Research Centre (VCIOM) presents the data of the survey devoted to the online habits of Russians as well as online resources they use to communicate.
Two-thirds of Russians (70%) use the Internet. Over the recent three years this share has been almost stable, as well as the share of those who do not use the world wide web at all (28-30% in 2014-2016). At the same time, the number of everyday users is growing; today this share is 53% (5% in 2005). The biggest annual growth was recorded between 2007 and 2008 (17-point increase).
Russian Internet users have become more vigilant when it comes to securing the data in the Internet: the share of those who pay no attention to the data protection has considerably decreased from 2013 to 2016 (from 32% to 20%). Most of them use anti-virus software (53%); remarkably, today much more respondents use this measure to protect online data than it was three years ago (31%). Every fourth user avoids publishing personal information in social media (29%), use strong passwords or change them frequently (26%; 17% in 2013). The proportion of those who clear cashe, saved passwords, history and downloads information has increased from 9% to 16%, respectively.
Vkontakte is still the most popular social networking platform; it is chosen by 52% of Internet users. An overwhelming majority of young Russians aged 18-24 (86%) opt for this site, unlike those who are aged 60 and over (21%). Second most popular social media resource is Odnoklassniki. Today it is used by 42% of users, compared to 61% in 2012. Those who use Odnoklassniki network are mainly people with elementary and secondary general education (50% and 51% respectively) and women (53%); rarer people with incomplete higher and complete higher education (34%) and men (30%). Whatsapp messenger (18%) is getting more popular than Facebook (13%) and Instagram (12%).
The VCIOM opinion polls were conducted on March 26-27, 2016 in 130 settlements, 46 regions and 9 federal districts of Russia. Sample size for each survey was 1600 persons. The surveys were conducted with multi-stage stratified sample based on general rule of walking and quotas at the final selection stage; the sample is representative of the Russian population aged 18 and over according to sex, age, education, type of settlement. The margin of error (taking into account the design effect) with 95% confidence interval does not exceed 3.5%. The survey method is community-based formalized face-to-face interviews. Apart from the margin of error, minor changes in question wording and different circumstances arising during the field work should be taken into account.
Do you use the Internet? If yes, how often? * (closed-ended question, one answer, %) | |||||||||||
| X.2006 | IX.2007 | X.2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 |
Almost every day | 5 | 5 | 15 | 19 | 23 | 30 | 38 | 42 | 47 | 51 | 53 |
Sometimes (several times per week, per month) | 14 | 15 | 18 | 21 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 21 | 21 | 19 | 16 |
From time to time, but not less than once per six months | 4 | 4 | 8 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
I do not use it | 76 | 75 | 59 | 55 | 53 | 47 | 40 | 34 | 30 | 28 | 29 |
Don’t know | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
* Average annual meanings are used for the period between 2009 and 2016
Which of the following actions do you undertake to keep your data secure in the Internet? (closed-ended question, any number of answers, % of those who use the Internet) | ||
| 2013 | 2016 |
I use anti-virus software | 31 | 53 |
I do not publish my personal data on social networking sites | 27 | 29 |
I set up strong passwords and change them often | 17 | 26 |
I do not use the Internet to send important documents or information | 22 | 23 |
I do not use e-payments | 19 | 18 |
I delete cashe, saved passwords, history and downloads | 9 | 16 |
I do not leave comments on forums and social networking sites | 15 | 15 |
I use incognito mode | 5 | 5 |
My forum and social media posts are anonymous | 8 | 3 |
Other (indicate) | 1 | 1 |
Nothing | 32 | 20 |
Don’t know | 3 | 2 |
Do you visit social networking sites? If yes, which ones do you use? (closed-ended question, any number of answers, % of those who use the Internet) | |||
| 2012 | 2015 | 2016 |
Vkontakte | 51 | 55 | 52 |
Odnoklassniki | 61 | 54 | 42 |
Whatsapp * | 0 | 0 | 18 |
15 | 16 | 13 | |
Instagram ** | 0 | 8 | 12 |
Moimir/ Blogi@Mail.Ru | 26 | 19 | 10 |
8 | 7 | 7 | |
Ya.ru | 5 | 1 | 1 |
Livejournal | 3 | 3 | 1 |
Moikrug | 4 | 2 | 1 |
LinkedIn ** | 0 | 1 | 0 |
LiveInternet | 2 | 2 | 0 |
Mamba.ru | 2 | 3 | 0 |
MySpace | 1 | 1 | 0 |
Blog.ru | 2 | 0 | 0 |
I do not use social networking sites | 17 | 15 | 22 |
Others | 3 | 2 | 2 |
Don’t know | 1 | 2 | 1 |
* In 2012, 2015, this answer option was not offered.
** In 2012 these answer options were not offered.
Note: Using materials from the site www.wciom.ru or wciom.com, as well as distributed by VCIOM, the reference to the source (or hyperlink for the electronic media) is obligatory.