EU: Online news least read in France—Estonia, Lithuania lead

Only about one in three internet users in France went online to catch the news or read their favourite newspapers in the last three months, the lowest in any EU nation, European Union data showed Tuesday.

Lithuania, with 92 percent, followed by Estonia with 91 percent, had the highest percentages of those using the internet for reading the news, with France, the EU laggard, at 38 percent, the Eurostat statistics agency said.

Finland was the leader for internet banking with 91 percent of users and for online travel services, at 69 percent.

Portugal topped the share of internet users posting messages to social media, with 75 percent, while the Czech Republic at 35 percent, France 40 percent and Germany 42 percent were at the bottom of that table.

Overall, sending and receiving e-mails were the most common use of the internet, at 89 percent, followed by finding information at 83 percent.

In all, 61 percent of users read online news, 54 percent used internet banking services, 52 percent posted messages to social media and 50 percent used travel services.

(c) 2012 AFP