More than half EU internauts use English online

90% of Internet users in EU prefer to access websites in their own language, 55% at least occasionally use a language other than their own when online according to a pan-EU Eurobarometer survey released today.

However, 44% of European Internet users feel they are missing interesting information because web pages are not in a language that they understand and only 18% buy products online in a foreign language.

According to the survey, English is the most commonly used language when it comes to reading and watching content on the Internet in a different language than one’s own: almost half of Internet users in the EU (48%) would use English at least “occasionally” while Spanish, German and French would be used by 4% to 6% of users. As for Romanians, only 47% are browsing in English online.

The first ever Eurobarometer survey “User language preferences online” was conducted in January 2011. The sample consists of 500 Internet users in each Member State. In total 13 500 respondents were interviewed.