Evidence Library
Comprehensive data charts, academic papers, and statistical analysis on the impact of social media on children and adolescents.
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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 Active Social Media Use: 15-Year-Olds (2022)
This chart shows the distribution of time spent on active social media activities, such as messaging, posting content, or sharing media, by 15-year-olds on a typical weekday. The data reveal that active participation remains a dominant behaviour for the vast majority of youth, with 84% of adolescents reporting daily active usage.
Daily Active Social Media Use: 15-Year-Olds by Gender (2022)
This chart shows the distribution of time spent on active social media activities, such as messaging and posting content, by 15-year-olds on a typical weekday, by gender. Active digital participation is a near-universal behaviour for both genders, with 87% of males and 82% of females engaging in active social media use daily. Notably, a higher percentage of females (18%) report no active usage compared to their male counterparts (13%).
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.
Daily Passive Social Media Use: 15-Year-Olds (2022)
This chart shows the distribution of time spent on passive social media activities, such as scrolling through feeds or browsing content, by 15-year-olds on a typical weekday. The data reveal that passive engagement is a near-universal habit for this demographic, with only 6% of adolescents reporting no usage at all. The majority of students fall into the moderate-to-heavy usage categories, with 39% spending between one and three hours daily on these platforms. 37% of 15-year-olds spend more than three hours per day engaged in passive scrolling. 94% of 15-year-olds are daily participants in passive digital consumption.
Daily Passive Social Media Use: 15-Year-Olds by Gender (2022)
This chart shows the distribution of time spent on passive social media activities, such as scrolling or browsing, by 15-year-olds on a typical weekday, divided by gender. The data reveal that passive consumption is a near-universal behaviour for both genders. Only a small minority of both genders report no passive usage at all. A significant trend emerges in the "high intensity" category: 42% of males spend more than three hours per day passively consuming content, compared to 32% of females.
Daily Use of the Internet Among Young People (16 to 29 Years Old) (2021-2025)
The table shows data on internet access frequency for individuals aged 16 to 29 years old over the years 2021-2025. Data reveals a steady and inexorable climb in the EU-27 average, rising from 95.15% in 2021 to 97.67% in 2025. This indicates that by the midpoint of the decade, daily internet access has become a near-absolute constant for young Europeans.
Digital Governance: Interacting with Public Authorities by Age (2023)
This chart shows the percentage of individuals using the internet for visiting or interacting with public authorities' websites, in 2023, in Europe, United States and United Kingdom. The data shows e-Government engagement ranging from high-saturation levels in the Nordics to significantly lower participation in Eastern Europe. A significant generational trend emerges: while the 25-54 age group typically leads engagement due to administrative requirements, youth (16-24) participation is remarkably inconsistent across borders.
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 11-year-olds who report problematic social media use
This table shows the percentage of 11-year-olds who experienced 'problematic' (addictive-like) social media use in 2022, broken down by the regions covered by the HBSC survey, including European member states, North America and Central Asia. The 2022 data reveal a significant 'early-onset addiction gap', with an average of 9% of children exhibiting at least six symptoms of digital dependency, such as withdrawal and loss of control, before entering their teens. A sharp regional divide emerges between Eastern and Western Europe: Romania (17–18%) and Bulgaria (14–16%) report the highest levels of early-stage problematic use, while the Netherlands (4–5%) and Switzerland (5%) have the lowest risk profiles in the dataset. Although the global average shows gender parity at 9%, striking gender disparities emerge in the United Kingdom and Mediterranean regions. In England and Malta, nearly one in five 11-year-old girls exhibits addictive behaviours, significantly higher than their male counterparts.