Evidence Library
Comprehensive data charts, academic papers, and statistical analysis on the impact of social media on children and adolescents.
filtered by Geographical
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.
Information and learning activities engaged in every day or almost every day, by country (Base: All children 10–16)
This EU Kids Online 2026 comparative study dataset maps the proportion of European young people who engage in daily or near-daily digital activities related to learning, information seeking, civic participation and health-related queries. Across Europe, functional and educational internet use is a key part of daily digital engagement: 38% of young people use the internet daily for schoolwork, and 28% use it for self-directed learning or skill practice. Furthermore, almost a quarter of European children (22%) access world news online daily. However, there are stark cross-national disparities in the integration of schoolwork: daily internet use for schoolwork ranges from 76% in Belgium and 63% in Norway to just 18% in Finland. These differences reflect fundamental variations in national education systems and digital homework policies rather than digital literacy alone. Higher levels of informal learning and active news-seeking are concentrated in southern and eastern European countries such as Malta (39% informal learning), Romania (39%), Portugal (37%) and Poland (34% news-seeking). Conversely, daily online civic engagement and public expression remain marginal across all member states. On average, only 5% of young people participate in public online discussions daily, ranging from 1% in Switzerland to 9% in Portugal, and just 3% participate in online campaigns or petitions. Seeking sensitive health information online is also a specialised activity: 10% search for physical health information daily, and 8% search for mental health guidance—though this rises to 14–19% in southern European countries such as Malta and Portugal.
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.
Online activities (Base: All children 10–16, European Average across 19 countries)
This EU Kids Online 2026 dataset provides European policymakers with a comprehensive breakdown of children's daily digital behaviours. It reveals a sharp divide between passive/relational consumption and active public participation. The data shows that children's online activity is mainly made up of private social interaction and entertainment. 78% communicate with friends, 74% watch social media videos, 71% listen to music and 67% stay in contact with parents or caregivers daily or almost daily (combining "several times each day" and "daily"). Academic and informal learning activities occupy a solid middle tier: 38% use the internet for schoolwork daily or almost daily, and 28% do so for skill development. Conversely, activities involving public exposure, active content creation, civic engagement or high-risk behaviours remain rare for the vast majority. Only 13% create or edit digital content daily, and 71% to 80% never participate in public online discussions, digital campaigns or petitions. Furthermore, potentially risky activities such as sharing information about others without consent (74% never), publicly posting identifiable information to strangers (60% never), or searching for mental health advice online (54% never) are not routine behaviours for most young people (at least as declared by them). These patterns demonstrate that European children declare to primarily use digital platforms for private socialising and entertainment rather than for public broadcasting, commercial trading, or political activism.
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.
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%).