Evidence Library
Comprehensive data charts, academic papers, and statistical analysis on the impact of social media on children and adolescents.
filtered by Geographical
Civic & Political Participation: Youth vs. General Population (2025)
The 2025 Eurostat data reveal that the internet has become a vital infrastructure for youth democratic engagement, with 24.33% of EU youth using digital platforms for civic or political participation, outpacing the general population by 4 percentage points. This gap is widest in Slovenia, where nearly half (49.4%) of all young people utilise the internet for political expression (only 33% of the general population do it). Youth high participation rates are found also in Latvia (33%) and Netherlands (36%).
Daily Internet Access of General Population and Youth (16 to 29 Years Old) (2025)
Daily internet connectivity has become a universal constant for European youth, with the 16–29 age group maintaining near-total saturation (97.67% EU average). While total population access varies significantly, the youth demographic remains consistently above 91% across all 37 measured territories. This creates a dramatic generational "Access Gap" in countries like Croatia (+16pp), Bulgaria (+15pp), and Poland (+14pp), where young people are disproportionately more connected than the general public.
Exposure to Misinformation (2022)
This chart shows the percentage of individuals who have seen untrue or doubtful information or content on internet news sites or social media, in 2022, across 22 European member states, EEA partners (Norway, Iceland), and Switzerland. Reported exposure to misinformation ranges from 34.5% in Greece to a high of 70.7% in the Netherlands. A clear regional trend emerges: Northern European and Nordic nations, including Finland (69.8%), Sweden (64.7%), and the Netherlands (70.7%), report the highest levels of exposure, while Southern European nations, specifically Greece (34.5%) and Italy (37.4%), report significantly lower encounters with doubtful information.
Exposure to Misinformation: Breakdown by Age Group (2022)
This chart shows the percentage of individuals who have seen untrue or doubtful information or content on internet news sites or social media in 2022, disaggregated by age groups (16-24, 25-54/64, and 55/65+) in Europe. The data reveal a stark "generational information gap" within the European digital space, with the youngest demographic (16-24) consistently reporting the highest exposure to doubtful content across every territory. Among this youth group, exposure to misinformation ranges from 41.6% in Greece to a peak of 80.7% in the Netherlands, suggesting that in highly digitised markets, encounter rates with doubtful information are nearly universal for young people.
Individuals who wrote code in a programming language by sex (2025)
This chart, from the Eurostat publication 'Young people – digital world' (March 2026), illustrates the percentage of individuals aged 16–29 who wrote code in a programming language in 2025, disaggregated by sex. The data reveal a significant 'digital creation gap', with the EU average for young men (19%) being more than double that for young women (9%). A significant trend emerges in the disparity between technical consumption and technical production. While previous Eurostat data showed near-universal social media participation, the percentage of young people capable of programming remains low, peaking at around 30–32% for males in Ireland and Norway. In several major economies, the gender gap is extreme: in Ireland, male programmers outnumber female programmers by a ratio of six to one (31% versus 5%), while in Portugal, the ratio is almost three to one. Notably, the data identifies Albania as a unique outlier, where young females (24%) significantly outpace young males (15%) in programming skills.
Lifelong Learning: Internet Use for Online Courses (2025)
This chart analyses the use of the internet for educational purposes, specifically: using the internet to do an online course of any kind. In 2025, nearly 22.4% of the 16–29 demographic uses online platforms for formal or informal learning, 6 percentage points higher than participation rate of the general population. This is most pronounced in the Finland (53.84%) and Hungary (43.34%), where online courses have become a majority activity for young people. Surprinsingly, the most significant generational gap is found in Finland where youth participation outstrips the general public by 25 percentage points.
People who participated in social networks (2025)
This chart, extracted from the Eurostat publication Young People in the Digital World in March 2026, illustrates active participation in social networks, defined as creating profiles, posting messages or sharing content. It compares individuals aged 16–29 with the total population in 2025. The data reveal that social networking has become the primary social infrastructure for European youth, with a European average participation rate of 89%, compared to 67% for the general population. A significant regional trend emerges in the 'social connectivity gap'. In several Member States, including Cyprus, the Czech Republic and Denmark, youth participation has reached near-total saturation (approaching 100%). Even in countries with the lowest relative engagement, such as Italy, youth participation (80%) is still 24 percentage points higher than that of the general population (56%). This trend is mirrored across the EEA and IPA countries, with youth engagement consistently exceeding 90% in territories such as Norway, Switzerland, and Montenegro.
People who used the internet on a daily basis (2025)
This chart, extracted from the Eurostat publication Young People – Digital World in March 2026, illustrates the percentage of daily internet users in 2025, comparing the youth demographic (aged 16–29) with the total population. The data reveal that daily internet connectivity has reached near-total saturation among European youth, with usage reaching nearly 100% in almost every surveyed nation. A significant regional trend emerges in the 'generational digital gap'. In highly digitised nations such as the Netherlands, Ireland and Denmark, daily usage is almost identical among young people and the general population. However, in Southern and Eastern Europe, as well as in IPA (candidate) countries, a significant divide remains. In countries such as Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and Albania, young people are virtually 100% online daily, whereas the total population's daily usage remains significantly lower, typically ranging from 80% to 90%.
Percentage of 10-years old Having Their Own Smartphone by Socio-Economic Status, 2021
This data reveals an 'inverse digital divide', showing the varying rates of smartphone ownership among 10-year-olds across Europe. While nearly all 10-year-olds in Northern Europe own a smartphone regardless of background (e.g. over 95 per cent in Finland and Norway), a stark socioeconomic reversal emerges in Western and Southern Europe. In Ireland, Belgium, Spain and France, children from low-SES families are more than twice as likely to own a smartphone as those from high-SES families, whose parents may be more inclined to delay purchase. Conversely, Turkey remains an outlier, with the lowest overall penetration rate, and a traditional divide, whereby high-SES children have significantly greater access (41.8% versus 16.8%). This highlights that early smartphone use is influenced by both national norms and domestic management strategies.
Percentage of 15-Year-Olds Who Can Easily Change Settings of a Device (App) To Protect Their Data and Privacy, by Socio-Economic Status, 2022
Data from the OECD's 'How's Life for Children in the Digital Age?' report, published in 2025, shows that 51% of 15-year-olds can easily manage digital privacy settings, and that this ability is closely linked to socio-economic status (SES). High-SES teenagers consistently report higher technical agency than their low-SES peers, and this divide is evident across all analysed European countries. Ireland demonstrates the highest overall proficiency (64.5%), while Slovakia reports the lowest for low-SES students (33.8%). The socioeconomic gap is particularly acute in Hungary and Greece, where high-SES teenagers outperform their low-SES peers by almost 20 percentage points. This highlights significant inequalities in children's ability to mitigate digital privacy risks based on their socioeconomic status across Europe.