In 2023, the vast majority (93.9%) of EU businesses used a fixed broadband connection to access the internet, according to Eurostat figures released today.

The percentage was even higher for medium and large businesses, where nearly all businesses reported connecting to the Internet via a fixed broadband connection.

Compared to pre-pandemic levels in 2019 (91%), 2023 saw a 2.9 percentage point increase in fixed broadband to businesses across all EU countries. The most notable increases were in Greece (15.8 percentage points) , in Romania (15.6 percentage points) and Bulgaria (8.7 percentage points).

In terms of internet speeds, the percentage of businesses in the EU that had a maximum conventional download speed from a fixed line of at least 1 Gb/s stood at 12.8%, an increase of 0.9% from the 2022 figure (11.9% ). Denmark (29.1%), Portugal (22.2%) and Spain (21%) led the way, while the lowest percentage of businesses with maximum speed was recorded in Greece (2.9%), Croatia (4.8 %) and in Estonia (5.3%).

The highest increases in the percentage of businesses with the maximum connection speed were recorded in Cyprus (5.1%), Malta (4.6%) and Spain (3.8%).

Decreases were noted in Sweden (-2.1%), Lithuania (-1.6%) and Latvia (-0.5%).