Evidence Library
Comprehensive data charts, academic papers, and statistical analysis on the impact of social media on children and adolescents.
filtered by Geographical
Percentage of 15-years old Having Their Own Smartphone by Socio-Economic Status, 2022
This data illustrates the near-universal level of smartphone ownership among 15-year-olds in Europe, emphasising the minimal disparity between socioeconomic groups across Europe. By the age of 15, owning a smartphone has become the norm across Europe, with an average ownership rate of 98%, and minimal disparities between socioeconomic tiers in most member states. In countries such as Poland, Denmark and Ireland, access is almost universal regardless of background, reflecting a shift whereby social disadvantage is no longer defined by a lack of hardware, but by the ability to manage and limit its use. However, significant economic barriers persist on the European Union's periphery. In Turkey, for example, there is still a 23 percentage point gap between low-socioeconomic status (73.4%) and high-socioeconomic status (96.6%) teenagers, indicating that universal access is not yet a global reality.
Share of Population Who Had Issues When Using a Website or App of Public Authorities (2022)
This chart shows the percentage of individuals who had issues when using a website or app of public authorities (specifically reporting that the platform was difficult to use) in European Union and Norway. Reported difficulties range from 7.06% in Greece to 39.13% in Spain. This over five-fold difference suggests that the user experience of e-Government services varies widely based on national design standards, the complexity of administrative procedures, and the maturity of digital infrastructure. In a regional context, highly digitised nations such as Norway (34.11%), Finland (23.41%), and France (23.83%) report surprisingly high levels of difficulty, potentially reflecting higher citizen usage of such websites and applications or more complex, multi-functional systems that offer more points of potential failure. Conversely, Baltic and Central European states like Estonia (9.44%) and Poland (7.74%) align with Germany (8.38%) in reporting relatively low user frustration, suggesting more streamlined or accessible digital public interfaces compared to the higher-friction environments observed in Ireland (25.7%) and Luxembourg (20.6%).
Social Media Participation: Youth (16-29) vs. General Population (2025)
In 2025, active participation in social networking (i.e., participation in social networks: creating user profiles, posting messages or other contributions to Facebook, Twitter, etc.) is the dominant digital activity for European youth, with nearly 89% of the EU-27 youth population maintaining profiles and posting content compared to just 67% of the general population. The data highlights a profound gap across the continent, most notably in Croatia (+29pp), Austria (+28pp), and Poland (+27pp), where young people are exponentially more involved in social media than older generations. Even in major economies where general social media participation is relatively low, such as Germany (59%) and Italy (56%), the youth demographic remains highly active at 84% and 80%, respectively.
Young Adults' Digital Proficiency by Gender (2025)
This chart shows the digital skills for youth (16-29) by gender, in 2025. On average, 76.17% of EU females aged 16–29 possess basic or above-basic digital skills, outperforming their male counterparts (73.36%) by nearly 3 percentage points. This trend is most extreme in Slovenia, where there is a staggering 12-point gap in favour of females (71% vs 59%) and Cyprus, with a gap of 11 percentage points (74% vs 62%). Denmark shows the highest female digital literacy, with 92%, followed by Czechia with 91.8% and Finland with 91.4%.
Youth Internet Use by Gender (2025)
The 2025 Eurostat data confirms that young women have become the primary occupants of the European digital landscape. On average, 77% of EU females aged 16–29 were active internet users in the monitored period, compared to 74.5% of their male counterparts. This 2.6-percentage-point suggests that digital platforms are integral to the daily life and social connectivity of young women. The gender disparity is most pronounced in Slovenia, where female active usage outstrips males by over 12 percentage points (71.3% vs. 59%), and in Cyprus, where the gap exceeds 11.7 percentage points. In high-saturation markets like Denmark, female participation reaches 92%. Conversely, a another trend is present in a few countries, with North Macedonia showing the the highest opposite difference between male and female usage (9 percentage points), followed by Serbia with 3.6 percentage points difference.