ANACOM - Portuguese Communications Authority

04/21/2025 | News release | Distributed by Public on 04/21/2025 10:21

Around 42% of Internet users owned IoT devices for personal use

The use of the Internet of Things (IoT) has increased in recent years. In 2024, 41.6% of individual Internet users had an Internet-connected device for personal use, up 3.2 percentage points (p.p.) from 2022, and 27.1% had an Internet-connected household appliance, up 4.7 p.p. from 2022.

From another perspective, in 2024, 36.9% of the total population had an Internet-connected device for personal use and 24.0% had an Internet-connected household device.

Portugal was above the EU27 average for the use of IoT devices for personal use and below the EU27 average for the use of IoT devices for household use.

Among the devices for personal use analysed, smart watches, fitness bands, glasses or headphones, GPS tracking devices, clothing, shoes or accessories (34.8% of internet users, +11.0 p.p. compared to 2020), cars equipped by the manufacturer with a wireless Internet connection (12.7%) and Internet-connected medical and healthcare devices (9.9%) stand out.

Among the household devices analysed, electrical appliances stood out as the most used (12.8% of Internet users). This was followed by virtual assistants (10.8%), home energy management devices (10.6%) and security solutions (9.6%).

Internet-connected household and personal devices were relatively more likely to be used by people with higher levels of education and under 45 years of age.

Among users of Internet-connected devices, 19.7% said they had experienced some problem with their use, notably «difficulties in using the device» (12.2%) and «computer security or privacy problems» (7.9%).

The main reasons for not using Internet-connected devices or systems were «no need to use them» (69.1%), «high cost» (38.9%) and «concerns about computer security» (29.4%).

Consult the statistical report: