Macao's internet penetration rate rises to 90 pct in 2022

MACAO, March 22 (Xinhua) -- Internet penetration rate in China's Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) in 2022 went up 1.5 percentage points year-on-year to 90.0 percent, the SAR's statistic service said on Wednesday.

A survey by the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) showed that internet penetration rate among those aged between 15 and 24 stood at 99.5 percent, the highest among all age groups.

On the other hand, 72.1 percent of those aged 65 and above used the internet, a rise of 6.8 percentage points from the previous year. For those aged three to 14, 69.0 percent used the internet.

Regarding the frequency of internet use, 95.8 percent of the internet users were daily users. The median daily hours spent online remained steady at three hours.

About 195,100 households in Macao had access to the internet last year, equivalent to 95.8 percent of the total households, up 1.2 percentage points year-on-year, showed the survey.

Among the households with internet access, 97.9 percent used mobile network while 91.2 percent used home broadband. Meanwhile, 72.4 percent of the total households had computer equipment in 2022.

Most people used the internet for online government services, communication or social networking, online entertainment and information search. The proportion for electronic banking and mobile payment continued to rise to 67.1 percent, up 6.4 percentage points year-on-year.