About 55 percent of Romania's urban population aged over 15 use the computer at least once a month and 51 percent access the Internet monthly or more often, shows the 2010 Roper Reports survey released by GfK Romania.

In Romania, the Internet is used primarily for chatting with friends and family and for fun. Compared to consumers from other parts of the world, the Romanians use instant messaging to a far greater extent - 63 percent of Internet users from Romanian cities, as to 32 percent of the Internet surfers from the 26 surveyed countries on all continents. Users from other countries prefer instead to keep in touch with friends and family via email: 66 percent do so at least monthly, compared with 50 percent of Romanian users. According to the report, another major role of the Internet is that of a source of entertainment . In Romania, 44 percent of online urban users listen to music or radio, 39 percent watch movies or video posts, 36 percent download audio files, and 31 percent download video files.

More than 37,000 people aged over 15 from 26 countries on all continents were interviewed between February and March 2010. For Romania, the research focuses on the urban population aged over 15, with the sample being 1,000-strong.

AGERPRES