Overall, the rate of internet access among households last year (2022) showed an increase of 96% compared to the previous year. This data was obtained through the 2022 ICT Use and Access by Individuals & Households survey report issued by the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM).
The summary of the report found that there is a 97.4% increase in internet usage by individuals in Malaysia in 2022, which is due to the progress of internet access among urban and rural users with an increase of 98.3% and 94.5% respectively.
The same survey also revealed that internet usage among men showed a higher rate of 98.8%, compared to women (95.9%). In addition, as many as 99.7% of respondents identified as the highest internet users are in the age group of 20 to 24 years. While Malaysians aged 60 and above recorded the lowest percentage level of 85.5% compared to others.
The details of the study found that the use of the internet involving social networks became one of the most popular activities which increased to 92.5% that year. Then followed by other activities such as downloading content (93.5%) searching for information about goods/services (92.5%), downloading software/applications (89.1%) and also making phone calls via Internet/VoIP (85.2%).
Next, the overall percentage of access to other ICT services and equipment also shows a pattern of ups and downs. For example, computer access with 88.3% was recorded in 2021 and increased to 91.3% in 2022. It was followed by the latest amount of television access which also increased to 99.2% (2022).
Meanwhile, the latest figures for landline phone reach showed a drop to 27.3%, followed by radio (99.1%), pay TV broadcasts (76.9%) and mobile phones (99.3%).