The European questionnaire on Information and Communication Technologies Data reveals that there exists a disparity between the internet usage of people with a low (At most lower secondary education), medium (Upper secondary and post-secondary non-tertiary education), and high (Tertiary education) formal education level. This disparity although present in most countries, differs widely in its severity.
In 2020, only 30 percent of users with low formal education in Italy responded that they used the internet to access online news sites, newspapers, or news magazines. Similarly low percentages were reported from countries like
Croatia and
France*. In some countries the gap between low and medium formal education levels and the usage of the internet were severe, as in Croatia or
Portugal. In others like France and
Sweden the difference is less significant. Overall, the share of people that possess high formal education used the internet to access news more frequently than the two other groups. The
United Kingdom,
Sweden, and
Spain all reporting values higher than 90 percent.