Czechia celebrates 30 years on the Internet
The vast majority of people today cannot imagine life without the Internet. We use it to search for information, read emails, book vacations, pay in stores, send entertaining photos and videos. Due to the Covid pandemic, we are also relying on her for online meetings and distance learning. However, it has only been 30 years since this phenomenon entered our lives.
The Internet’s beginnings in what was then Czechoslovakia (the country split into the Czech and Slovak Republics 10 months later on December 31, 1992) were more than humble.
Only a few select universities, large corporations and a few enthusiasts have joined the World Wide Web. They had been connected remotely to networks such as FidoNet, EUnet or EARN already before February 13, 1992.
By the way, the first media in the country to go online was Radio Prague, which launched its website on November 17, 1994.
Today, most Czechs use the Internet regularly. According to data from the Czech Statistical Office, some 83% of people over the age of 16 used the internet in the Czech Republic in 2021. In absolute terms, this amounts to 7.3 million people.
Almost all families with children and young families without children are connected to the Internet (99% and 98% respectively), compared to only 44% of retired households.
However, the Czech Republic remains below the European average. The highest number of internet-connected households, 97%, is in the Netherlands. On the other hand, it is in Bulgaria that we find the fewest of these households, 79%, in Europe.
