More Dutch people using cloud-based services

Use of the cloud by Dutch people aged 12 years or older has risen from 31 percent in 2014 to 46 percent this year. The share of young people using cloud services is over three times as high as that of older people; higher educated people are also more likely to use the cloud than lower educated, around twice as much. Cloud-based services are slightly more popular among men than among women.

Mainly photographs in the cloud

By far, most users (90 percent) say they use the cloud for photo storage. Text documents, spreadsheets and presentations are also stored often, by six in ten people. Music, videos or films, and e-books or e-magazines are stored in the cloud significantly less frequently: a minority of 20 to 30 percent have occasionally done so over the past three months.

Cloud computing services are often offered for free, but sometimes a fee is charged, for extra storage volume for example. The majority of Dutch people say they use the cloud free of charge; fewer than one in five report they use paid cloud services.

Netherlands among European top for cloud usage

In 2016, 43 percent of Dutch 16 to 74-year-olds said they had used the cloud in the past three months. This puts the Netherlands, together with Sweden and the United Kingdom, in the top three of European countries.

With shares hovering around 20 percent, use of cloud computing services is less than half in large European countries such as Germany, France and Italy. On average, more than one-quarter of EU citizens are cloud users.