How do New Zealanders use the Internet

Over 96% of New Zealand Internet users use the Internet on a daily basis in their home, and seven out of ten use the Internet daily at work. The average daily use of the Internet at home and work has continued to increase year over year.

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New Zealanders are using the Internet more and more

In total

At home

At work

Using public wifi

Social media and messaging channels

Overall, SMS (text) has the highest use (over eight in ten people use SMS at least weekly). However Facebook is the most frequently accessed channel, with six out of ten people using it daily.

TikTok, Reddit, and WeChat are the least frequently used social media and messaging channels we asked about.

Whatsapp, Instagram, and LinkedIn were the only social media channels that had an average weekly use increase in 2020.

Frequency of social media use

Please note: zero values represent years where data was not collected for this particular category. View data in table format for more details.

Home Internet connections

There is an upward trend in having a fibre connection at home (to the detriment of the other types of Internet connection(s).

Internet connection types over time

2020
2019
2018

Who is most likely to have a fibre connection?

Which of the following have you done online?

There was an increase in the number of New Zealanders who used the Internet for their education via remote learning. This is could be due to schools switching to remote learning during COVID-19.

The number of people who found a job online decreased in 2020. Could this reflect some instability in the job market due to COVID-19?

Even in a time of economic uncertainty, more New Zealanders used the Internet to buy a house than to rent in 2020.

Which of the following have New Zealanders done online?

2020
2019
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