75 % of enterprises ensure employees with remote access to e-mail and documents

Results of the Central Statistical Bureau (CSB) annual survey on the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in enterprises show that in 2024 virtually all Latvian enterprises used internet¹ (100 %) and this indicator has remained unchanged already for the fifth year.

Fixed internet is used by 81.5 % of enterprises, of which – 98.2 % by large, 89.0 % by medium and 79.7 % by small enterprises².

For work internet is used by 61.9 % of all employees of enterprises, and that is 0.8 percentage points more than a year ago.

91.1 % of enterprises ensured portable devices for mobile internet use for work purposes, an increase of 3.0 percentage points, compared to 2022. In group of large enterprises this indicator comprises 99.1 %, of medium-sized enterprises – 94.8 %, but of small enterprises – 90.1 %.

Almost one fifth or 18.0 % of enterprises employ their own ICT specialists, of which 82.4 % of large enterprises, 37.7 % of medium-sized enterprises and 12.5 % of small enterprises.

Remote access

75.3 % of all enterprises ensure employees with remote access to at least one of the following: enterprise’s e-mail, documents or software. Out of large enterprises it is ensured by 96.4 %, of medium-sized enterprises – 88.5 %, but of small enterprises – 72.3 %. Compared to 2022, this indicator has reduced by 2.3 percentage points, which can be explained with the return of some employees to on-site work.

34.0 % of enterprises hold remote meetings over the internet, and such option is mostly used in large enterprises – by 86.0 %, in medium-sized enterprises – by 57.3 %, but in small enterprises – only by 28.2 %. Compared to 2022, this indicator has dropped by 4.6 percentage points.

Advertisements on the internet

33.9 % of enterprises pay for advertising services on the internet, which is a significant increase of 5.1 percentage points, compared to 2023. In large enterprises it comprises 61.3 %, in medium-sized enterprises – 42.1 %, but in small enterprises – 31.6 %.

Part of enterprises that are paying for advertisements on the internet use targeted advertising methods, and at least one of them is used by 27.8 % of enterprises.

E-commerce

One of indicators characterizing development of e-commerce³ is share of enterprises selling goods or services over the internet or in other computer networks. In 2023 it was done by 19.5 % of enterprises. Compared to 2022, this indicator has not changed significantly. Increase – of 1.7 percentage points – was in the group of large enterprises, where sales over the internet was used by 43.7 %. In the group of small enterprises the indicator has remained without any significant changes (17.2 %), but in the group of medium-sized enterprises selling goods or services over the internet reduced by 2.4 percentage points to 28.3 %.

In 2023, 17.0 % of enterprises received online orders from customers (buyers of goods or services) in Latvia, 8.5 % from customers in other EU Member States and 3.6 % from customers in the rest of the world.

Artificial intelligence

In 2024, 8.8 % (33.3 % of large enterprises, 13.6 % of medium-sized enterprises and 7.2 % of small enterprises) of enterprises use at least one AI solution, and that is 4.3 percentage points more than in 2023. The most popular are: written language analysis (converts spoken language into machine-readable format, produces written or spoken language), used by 5.8 % of enterprises and technologies that identify objects or persons through image recognition, used by 2.8 % of enterprises. 7.1 % of enterprises have considered using an AI technology in the future, but the main reason for not doing this so far is a lack of appropriate expertise (67.3 % of enterprises).

The survey was carried out at the beginning of 2024 with European Union co-funding to obtain qualitative and internationally comparable information on the use of ICT and the development of e-commerce in enterprises with 10 or more employees.

Methodological explanations:

¹ The survey covered enterprises employing ten or more people in the following economic activities: manufacturing, electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply, water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation activities, construction, trade, hotels and restaurants, transportation and storage, information and communication, real estate activities, professional, scientific and technical activities, administrative and support service activities and repair of computers and communication equipment.

² Large enterprises – those employing 250 and more people, medium-sized – those employing 50– 249 people, and small – those employing 10 to 49 people.

³ E-commerce is sales of goods or services over the internet on the enterprise website, on e-commerce websites used by several enterprises, as well as sales using electronic data exchange (exchange of entrepreneurship documents in standard electronic form among business partners, which is suitable for automated order processing).

Media requests:
Communication Section
E-mail: media@csp.gov.lv
Phone: +371 67366621, +371 27880666

More information on the data:
Inga Pribitoka
Trade and Services Statistics Section
E-mail: Inga.Pribitoka@csp.gov.lv
Phone: +371 67366993