New Zealand’s Internet Insights 2023
Welcome to this year’s Internet Insights report, an in-depth survey of New Zealand’s online attitudes and behaviours. The survey was compiled by Verian (previously Kantar Public) who polled 1,001 people in Aotearoa to reveal how the Internet is impacting our lives.
The info below is just some of the key findings from the report.
Internet use A huge amount of our personal time is spent on the Internet
New Zealanders drop their daily use of Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter/X
While these huge social platforms still consume most of our personal Internet use, our daily use has dropped this year. However, Messenger and TikTok remain the same.
Increase in people connecting to fibre — the biggest jump in four years
This year's survey shows the biggest increase in home fibre connections in the last four years. 69% of New Zealand Internet users are now connected to fibre at home. This is up from 64% the year before.
New Zealanders are divided on whether they think the Internet has a positive impact on our cultural beliefs and values
37% positive impact, 28% negative impact.
Thirty seven percent of New Zealanders think the Internet has a positive impact on our cultural beliefs and values. But 28% think it has a negative effect.
Women are more likely to think it has a negative impact than men.
ConcernsPositives and negatives of the Internet
We see a significant decline in people thinking that the positives of the Internet outweigh the negatives
Since last year, the number of people who think the positives of the Internet outweigh the negatives has dropped from 84% to 80%. This number has been declining since 2019. For Māori it is 75% and for Pasifika peoples it's only 63%.
80% Feel the positive outweighs the negative. This is down 4 percentage points from last year.
pp = percentage points
Older people (aged 70 or over) are more concerned than younger people about 14 of the 18 aspects of the Internet.
People being very or extremely concerned that information is misleading or wrong has increased from 59% last year to 65%.
Two out of five New Zealanders (42%) are concerned about people being cut off from the Internet due to a natural disaster or infrastructure issue.
Online SafetyToo many people have personally experienced online harm or harassment
Of these 38%, most would report it to Netsafe (48%) and 30% said they would report it to the police (which is down from 47% last year).
Even though a whopping 50% of people who use their personal details on the Internet are very or extremely concerned about the security of their data, we are seeing a drop in the number of people taking security precautions.
Artificial IntelligenceA lot of New Zealanders are concerned about AI
Four out of five New Zealanders know ‘at least’ a little bit about artificial intelligence (AI). We asked these people how they felt about AI and 42% said they are more concerned than excited.
Of the group that were concerned, these were their top 5 concerns...
Being used for malicious purposes
Having no regulation and law regarding development
Having unintended consequences that cause harm to people
Producing inaccurate information
Violating privacy concerns
Flexible workingA lot of New Zealanders still say they want to work from home more often!
Three in five New Zealanders (61%) do the type of job that allows them to work from home. 75% of those, with the option to work from home, do so at least some of the time.
Half of New Zealanders — who can work from home — would consider relocating in Aotearoa if they could take their job with them.
These are the top three reasons why people would move:
More about the research
Find out more about our methodologies,
or download the full report.