Digital 2023 Deep-Dive: Understanding the decline in time spent online
One of the biggest stories in our huge new collection of Digital 2023 reports is that the amount of time that the world spends online has declined by almost 5 percent year on year.
Specifically, GWI reports that the typical internet user has reduced the amount of time that they spend online by 20 minutes per day since this time last year.
A year ago, the company’s data showed that working-age internet users spent an average of almost 7 hours per day online, but that’s fallen to 6 hours and 37 minutes per day in the most recent wave of research.
Digging deeper into changes in time spent online
It’s interesting to note that this latest figure is very close to the daily average for Q3 2019 – shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic delivered its profound impact on the world’s digital behaviours.
But it’s also interesting to note that the Q3 2019 figure also showed a decline versus the equivalent 2018 figure, with the worldwide average falling by 2.4 percent – or 10 minutes per day – during that period.
For context, the worldwide averages for Q4 2019 and Q1 2020 showed modest increases compared with that Q3 2019 figure, with both figures registering an increase of two minutes per day over the previous quarter.
The figure then jumped by 13 minutes per day (+3.2 percent) between Q1 and Q2 2020, as COVID-19 lockdowns took hold around the world.
Global averages then held relatively steady at just under 7 hours per day until Q4 2021, when the figure slipped to 6 hours and 53 minutes per day.
However, the most recent figures show some of the biggest drops we’ve seen in averager time spent using the internet, indicating a more deliberate change in people’s online activities.
Will we see further declines?
The latest global average (Q3 2022) has remained stable since the previous quarter (Q2 2022), so it’s unclear whether we’ll see the average fall further over the coming months.
However, the recent relaxation of China’s “zero COVID” policies may result in the country’s internet users spending more time out in the “physical” world over the coming weeks, potentially resulting in them spending less time online.
And given that China accounts for more than one in five (20.4 percent) of the world’s internet users, any change in Chinese behaviours will likely have a meaningful impact on the global average too.
Time spent online by country
The time that internet users spend online continues to vary meaningfully by geography and by demography, but similar declines are visible throughout the data.
For example, while Filipinos continue to spend an average of more than nine hours per day online, the latest daily figure of 9 hours and 14 minutes is considerably lower than the 10 hours and 56 minutes per day that we reported in our Digital 2021 Global Overview Report.
Indeed, Filipinos have reduced their average online time by a hefty 102 minutes per day compared with this time two years ago, and the current figure is more than 15 percent lower than the one we saw at the start of 2021.
There are a few exceptions to this trend, however.
Internet users in China say that they spent an average of three additional minutes per day online in Q3 2022 compared with the Q3 2021 figure that we reported this time last year.
GWI’s latest wave of research shows that the typical Chinese internet user now spends 5 hours and 25 minutes per day using connected devices and services, up from the 5 hours and 22 minutes that we reported in our Digital 2021 Global Overview Report.
However, it’s worth remembering that there were still strict COVID-19 lockdown restrictions in force in various parts of China in Q3 2022, so these figures may continue to reflect a “pandemic effect”.
It’s also interesting to note that research from GSMA Intelligence found an increase in the frequency of mobile internet use across the countries surveyed in its recent State of Mobile Internet Connectivity report:
“Mobile internet users are using their mobile phones more frequently for a range of online activities. Instant messaging, voice and video calling are the most popular internet activities, with other activities growing in frequency of usage.”
This may suggest that users in lower- and middle-income countries (LMICs) have increased the amount of time that they spend online, even as users in more developed economies reduce their online activity.
Dig deeper: learn more about trends in internet adoption across LMICs in this deep-dive article.
Time spent online by age and gender
When it comes to trends by demography over the past year, younger women report the biggest drop in daily time spent using the internet.
GWI’s data shows that female internet users aged 16 to 24 have reduced their daily average internet time by a sizeable 50 minutes over the past twelve months, from 8 hours and 18 minutes per day this time last year, to 7 hours and 28 minutes per day in our current report.
That equates to a year-on-year drop of 10 percent, and suggests that the typical internet user in this demographic will reduce their annual online time by a total of 12½ days in 2023 compared with the previous year.
Interestingly, however, older age groups report that their average daily internet time has actually increased over the past twelve months.
At a worldwide level, internet users between the ages of 55 and 64 say that they’re spending more time online today compared with last year, with women increasing their connected activity by an average of six minutes per day.
That doesn’t sound like much, but this represents a year-on-year increase of 2 percent, and means that women in this age group are spending three additional hours online per month compared with this time last year.
If you’d like to learn what people are actually doing during their time online, check out our complete Digital 2023 Global Overview Report.
And if you’d like to take a closer look at trends in time spent by country, dive into our extensive collection of free local country reports.
Disclosure: Simon Kemp is a brand ambassador for GWI.
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