Press Statement

Preasráiteas

29 November 2021

Go to release: Pulse Survey November 2021 - Our Lives Online: Snapshot of Results

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (29 November 2021) published a Snapshot of Results from the ‘Our Lives Online’ CSO Pulse Survey. This report includes insights into how much of our work, education and social lives have moved online since the pandemic. ‘Our Lives Online’ is a Frontier Publication from the CSO and is based on the first online CSO Pulse Survey, which is part of the CSO ‘Take Part’ campaign.

 Head of Division – Social Collection, Fiona O’ Riordan, commented: “The CSO today publishes its first outputs from the second Pulse Survey. This report demonstrates the value of this type of online survey; which is short, frequent and open to the public and takes the ‘pulse’ of the country about a particular issue at a particular point in time. We would like to thank all those who took part in this survey.”

Commenting on the results, Statistician, Dermot Kinane, said: “Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic (March 2020) more of our work, education and social lives moved online. Therefore, the CSO has produced a snapshot of Our Lives Online in Ireland in November 2021. This report includes insights into shopping, social media, social clubs, fitness and other online activities. For many in employment, remote work has become mainstream and like so many other aspects of life, education went online too over the past year or so. We include information on changes to these facets of life brought on by a need to stay apart.

This report shows that two-thirds (67%) of respondents feel that, outside of work or education, they are doing more online now than in comparison to a year ago. In addition, just over six in 10 (62%) feel they are spending more money online now than a year ago.

Looking at work patterns when all public health restrictions are removed, almost three in 10 (28%) of those who can work remotely said they would like to do so all the time and six in 10 (60%) indicated their preference to work remotely some of the time.

When asked about purchasing products online (other than groceries) six in 10 respondents (60%) said they mainly look for retailers that are either based locally to them, or elsewhere in Ireland regardless of price.”

Further results include:

Our Lives Online

• Less than 5% of people always purchase groceries online
• When shopping online, 95% of respondents said they use their Eircode
• Of those who use social media, 83% interact with family or friends in this way. Of them, almost two in every three (65%) reported increased interaction with family or friends through this medium over the past year
• Just over one in 10 (11%) people said they take part in online social clubs
• A similar amount (12%) use dating apps with almost two out of every three (65%) of them saying their usage of these apps has increased over the last 12 months
• Some 14% said they take part in online fitness, with 82% of them saying they did more over the past year
• When it comes to personal banking methods, just over six in 10 (61%) of respondents said they only use online banking

 Remote Work

• For those who currently work remotely, 98% of them do so from home
• Of those who said they would consider using a remote-work hub, 44% said they would travel up to 15 minutes to get to one, with an additional 45% saying they would travel up to double that time
• For those not in employment nearly six in 10 (58%) said they would consider taking a job if their work could work be done remotely
• When asked if they feel that working remotely may affect their opportunities for promotion, 46% in employment felt that working remotely would not affect their chances

 Remote Education

• For respondents participating in education when the pandemic began, 93% said they continued some or all of their course online when public health restrictions were introduced. Of these 42% said their online education experience was either Good, or Excellent
• Almost seven in 10 (68%) of those that planned to return to, or continue in, education in the future said the availability of remote or blended learning would make them more likely to choose a course that had these offerings
• Of those with no plans to return to, or continue in, education in the future, just over one in three (35%) said they would consider a change of mind if remote or blended learning was available
• Just over three in 10 (31%) parents with a child in post-primary (secondary school) rated their online education experience during the pandemic as Good, or Excellent. In third level, this figure rose to 35%

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