Less than half of adult Filipinos use the internet — survey
MANILA, Philippines — A national poll found that less than half of Filipinos 18-years-old and above were internet users as of 2019.
The survey was conducted by the Social Weather Stations from December 13 to December 16 in 2019 through face-to-face interviews with 1,800 individuals and found that only 45% of Filipino adults are on the internet.
"This is similar to the record-high 47% in December 2018 and September 2019," SWS said.
"For comparison, 83% of Filipino households own at least one cellular phone, 79% own a television, 31% own a radio, and 14% own a personal computer," the agency added.
SWS added that it has seen a general upward trend of internet use in the country since June 2006.
"[Internet use] was at 8% when SWS first surveyed it in June 2006. It rose from September 2007 to December 2011, ranging from 11-19%, and from March 2012 to December 2017, ranging from 23-41%."
"It has been 40% and above since March 2018, reaching as high as 47% in December 2018 and September 2019," the national poll said.
The survey also found that internet use is highest in Metro Manila, consistent with its findings since 2006.
"It has also been consistently higher in urban than in rural areas," the agency added.
In December 2019, the survey found that the proportion of internet users in Metro Manila rose to 65% from the 63% logged in September.
Meanwhile, the proportion of internet users in Visayas set a new record-high of 39%, surpassing the previous records of 37% in June 2018 and 2019.
"[Internet use] hardly changed in Balance Luzon, barely moving from 50% in September 2019 to 49% in December 2019. However, it fell in Mindanao, down from the record-high 42% in September 2019 to 32% in December 2019," SWS added.
The survey also found that the upward trend was consistent among all classes and sex but noted that "it has always been highest among class ABC compared to other classes."
SWS further noted that internet use has consistently been higher among younger and more educated Filipinos.
"By age, the proportion of Internet users was highest among the 18-24 year-olds at 86%, followed by the 25-34 year-olds at 73%, the 35-44 year-olds at 54%, the 45-54 year-olds at 32%, and those 55 years old and above at 12%."
The survey also found that, by educational attainment, internet use was highest among college graduates at 73% with junior high school graduates trailing them at 61%, followed by elementary graduates at 28%, and non-elementary graduates at 10%.
98% of Filipinos who use the internet are on Facebook
According to SWS, an overwhelming majority of adult Filipino internet users are on Facebook.
"As of December 2019, among adult Filipinos who use the Internet, almost all (98%) have a Facebook account (or an estimated 29.4 million individuals). This is equivalent to 44% of the total adult population of 66.2 million, based on the Philippine Statistics Authority medium-population projections for 2019," the survey read.
"YouTube was the second most popular social media platform with 18% (est. 12.1 million individuals), followed by Instagram with 6% (est. 3.8 million individuals), Snapchat with 4% (est. 2.4 million individuals), Twitter with 3% (est. 2.3 million individuals), and Viber with 2% (est. 1.2 million individuals)," SWS added.
A previous survey conducted in September 2019 by the same agency found that "24% of adult Filipinos (estimated 15.7 million individuals) read the news daily on Facebook."
As of December 2019, SWS findings show that 69% of adults or around 45.8 million people get their news daily through television, 19% or 12.5 million through the radio, and 1% or 0.9 million through newspapers. — Bella Perez-Rubio
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