Global Digital Communications

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Global Digital Communication: Texting,Social Networking Popular Worldwide

Released: December 20, 2011

Usage Difers by Age and Education

Survey Report

Cell phones are owned by overwhelmingly largemajorities of people in most major countries aroundthe world, and they are used for much more than justphone calls. In particular, text messaging is a globalphenomenon – across the 21 countries surveyed, amedian of 75% of cell phone owners say they text.

Texting is widespread in both wealthy nations andthe developing world. In fact, it is most commonamong cell phone owners in two of the poorest na-tions surveyed: Indonesia and Kenya.

Many also use their mobile phones to take picturesor video. A median of 50% use their cell phones in

this way in the 21 countries polled. Fully 72% of Ja-panese cell phone owners take pictures or video, asdo roughly six-in-ten in Mexico (61%), Spain (59%)and Egypt (58%). Fewer users access the internet via

cell phone, although more than four-in-ten mobilephone owners use their device to go online in Israel(47%), Japan (47%) and the United States (43%).

The survey by the Pew Research Center’s GlobalAttitudes Project, conducted March 21 to May 15,also nds that social networking is popular in manynations around the globe. This is especially true inIsrael (53%) and the U.S. (50%), where half or moresay they use social networking websites. More thanfour-in-ten use these sites in Britain (43%), Russia

(43%) and Spain (42%).

Social networking is generally more common inhigher income nations; however, this is largely dri-ven by the fact that wealthier countries have higherrates of internet access. People in lower income na-tions who have online access use social networkingat rates that are as high, or higher, than those foundin afuent countries.

In nearly every country, the young and the well-educated are especially likely to embrace all of these technologies. People under age 30 and collegegraduates tend to use their cell phones for morepurposes than those in older age groups and thosewithout a college degree, and they are also morelikely to use social networking sites.

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Global Digital Communication: Texting, Social Networking Popular Worldwide

Many Use Phones for Texting, Pictures

Text messaging is highly prevalent – in 19 of 21countries, a majority of mobile phone owners re-gularly send text messages.

Texting is most common among cell phone owners inIndonesia (96%), Kenya (89%), and Lebanon (87%),with eight-in-ten or more in Poland, Mexico, Japanand China also saying they regularly text.

In Western Europe, seven-in-ten or more say theysend text messages on their cell phones, with thenotable exception of Germany, where just 56%regularly text. Only in India and Pakistan do lessthan half (49% and 44%, respectively) of cell phoneowners text.

The Japanese are the most likely of the publics sur-veyed to say they regularly take pictures or videowith their cell phones, with 72% using their mobilephones for such purposes. Roughly six-in-ten cellphone owners in Mexico (61%), Spain (59%), andEgypt (58%) use their phones for snapping picturesor shooting video, while this is much less commonin Lebanon (33%), Kenya (31%), Germany (27%),and India (26%). Only 9% of Pakistani cell phone

owners say they use their devices for taking picturesor video.

In none of the countries surveyed do a majority usetheir cell phone regularly to access the internet.Still, at least 30% in six countries – Israel, Japan,the U.S., Britain, China and Poland – do go onlineusing their phone.

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Social Networking Widely Popular

In 15 of 21 countries, at least 25% of those polleduse social networking sites. Israel (53%) and the

U.S. (50%) top the list with the highest percentageof adults who say they use online social networkingsites such as Facebook.

About four-in-ten of all adults in Britain (43%), Rus-sia (43%), Spain (42%), Lithuania (39%) and Poland(39%) also say they engage in social networking.Among this group, Russia is the only country wherenearly all internet users are on social networking

sites. Only 6% of Russian internet users say theydo not go on these sites. In Germany (35%), France(35%), and China (32%), about a third of adults do so.

Germany, France, and Japan are the only countriespolled where more internet users say they do not goon social networking sites than say they do. While35% of Germans use social networking sites, 44%go online but do not use such sites; the comparablenumbers are 35% and 38% in France and 25% and33% in Japan.

About three-in-ten are on social networking sitesin Ukraine (30%), Turkey (29%), Jordan (29%), andEgypt (28%). In these four countries, as well as manyothers where social networking is less prevalent,the percentage of users tends to be low becausemajorities do not use the internet at all; however,among those who do use the internet, more areusing social networking sites than not.

In most of the countries surveyed, there has beenonly marginal change in social networking usesince 2010. Two notable exceptions are Egypt andRussia – countries where the role of social mediain recent political upheaval has been the subject of considerable attention. In both nations, usage hasincreased by ten percentage points over the pastyear, from 18% in 2010 to 28% in 2011 in Egypt andfrom 33% to 43% in Russia.

The percentage of adults who use social networkingsites is determined in part by the prevalence of in-ternet use, which is more broadly connected to a

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country’s wealth. The scatter plot below shows thepositive relationship between GDP per capita (PPP)in the country and the level of social networking.

The U.S., which has the highest per capita GDPamong the countries surveyed, is also among thecountries with the highest percentage of adultsusing social networking sites, while Pakistan andIndia have two of the lowest per capita GDPs and

the lowest levels of social networking.

Young, Educated Are More Connected

Consistently, young people are more likely to usetheir cell phones for functions other than phonecalls and they are much more likely to become in-volved in social networking. For instance, in nearlyall countries, people ages 18 to 29 are more likelythan those 50 or older to access the internet on theirmobile phone. This is especially true in Japan, where

78% of mobile phone users ages 18 to 29 regularlyuse their cell phones to access the internet, compa-

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red with only 20% of those 50 or older. Similarly, inthe U.S., 73% of 18-29 year-olds use their cell phonefor the internet, compared with 49% of 30-49 year-olds and 21% of those 50 or older. Young people arealso consistently more likely to use their cell phonesfor texting and taking pictures or video.

Meanwhile, social networking varies considerablyby age in almost all countries surveyed. In 13 of

21 countries, majorities of adults under age 30 usesocial networking sites. The only country in whicheven a quarter of those 50 or older engages in socialnetworking is the U.S. (26%).

A gap of 50 percentage points or more betweenadults under age 30 and those over age 50 emergesin 11 of the countries surveyed. The gap is moststriking in Lithuania, where 84% of 18-29 year-oldsuse social networking sites, while 43% of 30-49 year-olds and just 10% of those 50 and older do the same.

The gap on use of social networking between theoldest and youngest age groups is also large in theU.S., Western and Eastern Europe, Israel, and Japan.

There are smaller gaps between age groups in In-donesia (-26), Kenya (-19), and Jordan (-17), countrieswith lower internet usage rates. The age gap is smal-lest in the two countries with the lowest internetusage – India (-8) and Pakistan (-5) – as well as inEgypt (-9).

While younger adults are more likely to go onlinethan older adults, the age gap in internet usage isnot the sole driver of the age gap in social networ-king. Even among internet users, older people areconsistently much less likely to engage in socialnetworking than adults under the age of 30.

There are also notable education gaps regardingthe use of these technologies. For example, 76% of Chinese cell phone owners with a college degreeuse the internet on their device, while just 34% of

those who did not complete college use their phonesin this way. Among American cell phone owners

with a college degree, 53% use their phone to goonline, compared with 39% of those without a col-lege degree.

Education levelis also a signi-cant factor insocial networ-king usage,

though the im-portance of education va-ries widely bycountry. Thelargest diffe-r e n c e sbetween col-lege graduatesand those wi-thout a college

degree arefound in Egypt(+71) andChina (+51).The educationgap iss o m e w h a tless pro-nounced inthe U.S. andWestern Eu-rope; and it isespecially lowin Germany(+4) and Bri-tain (+2).

C o m p a r e dwith age ande d u c a t i o n ,gender dif-ferences areless common

in these measures of technology usage. Nevertheless,there are notable gender gaps in a few countries, in-

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cluding Spain, where 29% of male cell phone ownersuse their devices to access the internet, comparedwith 13% of females. In Germany, 26% of men whoown a cell phone regularly use it for accessing theinternet, while just 11% of women do so. And inTurkey, the gap is 16 percentage points betweenmen (30%) and women (14%).

In Egypt, the gender gap is reversed, with women

more likely than men to use their cell phones fortexting (80% vs. 65%) and for taking pictures orvideo (65% vs. 53%).

There are few gender differences in social networ-king usage, although in Turkey 37% of men use socialnetworking sites, compared with just 20% of women.

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