Households with internet access in Latvia and Lithuania: similarities and differences

Abstract

Faster Internet penetration enables the population to use abundant sources of information, to contact public authorities, and to study and work remotely irrespective of their age, place of residence or social status. The expansion of the Internet can partially reduce the differences in the quality of life in various regions, rural and urban areas. The article analyses the condition and changes in the Internet access in Latvian and Lithuanian households in 2004-2012. The analysis is based on the data of the Latvian and Lithuanian departments of statistics and Eurostat. The comparative analysis used Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests. The research revealed that the Internet penetration rate in Latvian and Lithuanian households is still lagging behind the average in the European Union. A comparison of the two countries unveiled that the household Internet penetration in Latvia is higher although not statistically significant. In Lithuanian regions the differences in the household Internet penetration rate are not statistically significant. In Latvia, the highest household Internet penetration rate is observed in Riga and Pieriga regions, whereas in Latgale region it is considerably lower. Latvian citizens use the Internet predominantly for job search and browsing information published by the authorities or related to holidaymaking, while Lithuanian citizens mostly go on the Internet to download software or to study on-line.