The pandemic attracted many Portuguese to online shopping. And, according to the survey on the use of information and communication technologies by families, revealed by INE, the phenomenon continues this year. In 2021, 40.4% of Portuguese between 16 and 74 years old purchased online in the three months, which reflects an increase of 5.2 percentage points compared to 2020.

Looking at the last 12 months before the interview, the percentage is even more expressive, at around 51.6%.

Still, a proportion of e-commerce users in Portugal remains below the European Union average, where in 2020 54% of the European population had online orders.

Data from INE show that an e-commerce use taxon increases more among women (up by 8.8 percentage points). Thus, the proportion between genders is divided between 43.2% of women and 37.4% of men.

The proportions of internet users who placed orders online are also higher in the age group from 25 to 34 years old (73.8% of users) and in the case of users who have higher education (67.9%) or are students (58.8%). “Considering as income classes, the asymmetry between penetration rates in the first two quintiles (20.0% and 28.5%) and in the three highest income quintiles (from 44.4% to 59.6%) is relevant ) “, indicates the INE.

The Lisbon Metropolitan Area continues to be the region in the country with the highest proportion of e-commerce users (46.6%). And, for the first time, there were percentages of users above the national average in Alentejo (40.9%) and Algarve (41.9%). The Centro region continues, as in 2020, to register a rate very close to the national reference, with 39.8% of e-commerce users. Madeira is the region of the country where the proportion of people who shop online is less expressive (31.2%).

These data also give information about internet access at home, which continues to expand. This year, 87.3% of households in Portugal have Internet access at home, an increase of 2.8 percentage points against 84.5% last year. “It also increases to those who access the internet through broadband, from 81.7% in 20203 to 84.1% in 2021, which is equivalent to a difference of more than 33.8 p.p. compared to 2010.”

Even so, despite these increases, the broadband penetration rate in households in Portugal continues to be below the European average last year, at 89%.

Proportion of people in telecommuting drops to 20.1%

With regard to the topic of telecommuting, this investigation carried out this year, with data collected between June 9 and September 3, 2021, shows that there are fewer people working from home compared to last year. If in 2020 there were 31.1% of respondents in telework, this year the percentage drops to 20.1%, reflecting a drop of 11 percentage points.

It also decreased the reference to the covid-19 pandemic as a justification for working from home, from 29.6% in 2020 to 17.5% in 2021 (minus 12.1 pp), explains the INE.

The Lisbon Metropolitan Area continues to be the region in which the proportion of people teleworking is highest (34.6%), despite a decrease of 8.6 pp compared to 2020. In exclusions, the percentage of people in teleworking is lowest in the autonomous regions (10.0% in the Autonomous Region of Madeira and 11.9% in the Autonomous Region of the Azores). It was in the Center and Algarve regions and in the autonomous regions that the proportions of people in teleworking were reduced the most.