OVER HALF of Slovak households, or 50.1 percent, have a personal computer, according to new data released by the Slovak Statistics Bureau, up sharply from 38.5 percent in 2005.
The data comes from a survey of 4,500 households across the country. The Bureau attributed the rise to growth in wages and a fall in computer prices, a diagnosis confirmed by Juraj Sabaka, the president of the Slovak IT Association.
"The increased presence of computers was due to a decline of 10-15 percent in prices on the market, the stronger crown and to growth in real wages," Sabaka said.
Internet penetration increased more slowly, from 23.3 percent of households with a connection in 2005 to 26.6 percent in 2006, but among those households that were on-line, 43 percent had broadband, up from 15.2 percent the year before. Sabaka ascribed the change again to falling prices and an increase in Slovak-language content on the web.
Some 40 percent of households said they did not have Internet because they did not need it, while one-third said it was too expensive.
