Russians use the Internet in search for news, information, communication, and music.
MOSCOW, September 25, 2012. Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents the data describing how many Russians use the Internet; whether the Internet users are interested in politics; and why they surf the Internet.
The share of Russians who use the Internet keeps rising. Currently this proportion makes up 60% of Russians; 40% use the Internet every day (a year ago – 30%). Simultaneously, the share of those who do not use the Internet is decreasing (from 50 to 40% over a year).
Those who actively use the Internet are more interested in politics. Among respondents who use the Internet from time to time the share of those who are interested in politics is 34%, whereas among active Internet users this share is 40%.
One of the key opportunities that the Internet provides is getting access to the information about the country and the world: 47% use the World Wide Web to know more about Russia and the world. However, those who use the internet mostly for this purpose are basically active Internet users (53%).
Most of Russians get access to the internet to do their work or to study (51%, two years ago – 58%), or to use electronic mail (45% versus 51% in 2010). Russians also go to the World Wide Web to listen to music, to watch movies, to read books (39%), to communicate with other users (37%), to search for friends (24%). The share of those who use the internet to play games or to do online shopping is not very high (17% and 12%, respectively).
The initiative Russian opinion polls were conducted on September 22-23, 2012. 1600 respondents were interviewed at 138 sampling points in 46 regions of Russia. The margin of error does not exceed 3.4%.
Do you the Internet? If yes, how often? (close-ended question, one answer) | |||||||||
| 2006 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | April 2011 | September 2011 | February 2012 | March 2012 | September 2012 |
Almost everyday | 5 | 11 | 15 | 23 | 30 | 30 | 36 | 38 | 40 |
Several times per week | 8 | 9 | 8 | 11 | 13 | 11 | 13 | 13 | 13 |
Several times per month | 6 | 7 | 6 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
From time to time, but not less than once every half a year | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
I do not use it | 76 | 69 | 69 | 60 | 47 | 50 | 45 | 43 | 40 |
Hard to tell | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Are you interested in politics? (close-ended question, one answer) | |||
| Do you the Internet? If yes, how often? | ||
| Almost everyday | Several times per week, per month | From time to time or never |
Definitely, yes | 6 | 4 | 6 |
Rather yes | 34 | 32 | 28 |
Rather no | 35 | 42 | 36 |
Definitely no | 24 | 21 | 30 |
Hard to tell | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Why do you need the Internet? | ||||
| 2006 | 2008 | 2010 | 2012 |
To track world news, news in Russia | 44 | 39 | 48 | 47 |
For my work, my studying | 77 | 62 | 58 | 51 |
For e-mailing | 44 | 42 | 51 | 45 |
To listen to music, to watch movies, to read books | 20 | 28 | 38 | 39 |
To play games | 11 | 14 | 21 | 17 |
To watch porn sites | 3 | 6 | 5 | 3 |
To communicate with other users through chats and forums | 20 | 29 | 39 | 37 |
To search for friends with similar interests | 9 | 16 | 28 | 24 |
To do online shopping* | - | - | 12 | 12 |
To get additional information, to broad my mental outlook* | - | - | 49 | 46 |
Other | 1 | 4 | 1 | 0 |
Hard to tell | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
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!