【Aging, safety net and fiscal crisis in Japan】No.245: Elderly people's internet use is increasing

Figure 1 compares the percentage of internet use by age group between 2018 and 2019. Notably, the percentage of use of people aged 60 years or more grew sharply. There are various devices including smartphones, personal computers (PCs), tablets, game consoles, and TVs that can be connected to the Internet. Among these devices, smartphone use has experienced the largest increase in use percentage over the past 10 years (Figure 2). As shown in Figure 3, between 2018 and 2019, the percentage of elderly people that used smartphones increased significantly.

Figure 1 Percentage of internet use by age group

Figure 2 Percentage of use of information devices

Figure 3 Percentage of smartphone use by age group