HOUSEHOLDS with Internet access increased to 96% in 2022 compared to 94.9% in 2021, says the latest report from the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DoSM).

In the 2022 ICT Use and Access by Individuals and Households Survey Report released today, DoSM noted that household access to mobile phones, radios and televisions remained above 95%, but the access rate to pay television broadcasts was 76.9%, down from 83.2% in 2021.

The report also stated that the use of the Internet among Malaysians aged 15 and above had increased from 96.8% (2021) to 97.4% (2022), where the most popular online activity in Malaysia was participating in social networks.

DoSM explained that the use of the internet had increased significantly for services related to finding information, communication, civics and politics, e-Government, entertainment, e-Commerce and other online services.

“Activities related to services increased by more than 3 percentage points. Finding information about goods or services increased to 92.5%, uploading self-created content to a website (17.6%) and managing personal homepages (10.3%).

“Other activities related to services are performing tasks online to generate income (15.5%), Internet banking (74.8%), listening to radio online (72.8%), watching television online (68.1%) and purchasing or ordering goods or services via e-Commerce (70.4%,” read the report.

Based on the study, ICT skills which were one of the indicators monitored in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), had also improved.

Basic ICT skills activities include copying or transferring files using copy-and-paste techniques and sending emails with files.

Activities that require specific expertise, such as using basic arithmetic formulas in a spreadsheet and writing computer programmes using programming languages, had increased to 67.1% and 23.5% respectively.

Other activities also increased, such as connecting and installing new devices (79.2%), searching, downloading, installing and configuring software (72.5%) and creating electronic presentations using computer software (62.9%).

The survey was carried out during the transition to the endemic phase of Covid-19. – Bernama, May 31 2023.