The latest data on internet usage
in Canada
Key findings
Generative AI use
About one-in-six Canadians (16 per cent) say they have used a generative AI tool or platform in the past year.
Deepfakes
Most Canadians (76 per cent) believe that posting or sharing deepfakes should not be allowed on social media.
Accessing news
The top methods for accessing news online are visiting specific news/media sites (35 per cent) and Google searches about news events (33 per cent).
Confidence to detect fraud
Only half (51 per cent) of Canadians say they are confident in their ability to detect fraud/scams online, down from 67 per cent in 2023.
Credibility
Half (53 per cent) of Canadians agree that having a website makes businesses look more credible.
Full survey results
The Canada’s Internet Factbook 2024 survey was conducted by The Strategic Counsel in March 2024. Two thousand adult Canadian internet users (18+) were surveyed via an online panel. The goal of the survey was to identify trends in Canadian internet access and use.
You can find the full survey results here and a summary of the findings below.
Executive summary
Reliable, always-on internet connectivity is indispensable for Canadians today—yet somehow a small percentage of us manage to function without it. The list of our daily activities that don’t involve some element of connectedness is short and getting shorter.
Even when we’re asleep, our smart watches and other wearable devices stay connected, uploading our biometric data to the cloud. In fact, our dependency is so extreme, you might be tempted to say we’re in our “can’t-live-without-connectivity” era.
Every year, CIRA publishes Canada’s Internet Factbook to help shine a light on how Canadians are using the internet and to track how those habits are changing over time. We’re publishing a four-part blog series of the most significant findings from our annual survey of 2,000 Canadian internet users. Each blog will highlight a particular trend or theme uncovered in the survey and delve into what it tells us about where we are today and where we may be headed.
Connectivity
This year’s Factbook research reaffirms the reality of ubiquitous and near-constant connectivity for the vast majority of Canadians. Consistent with findings from the last several years, about half of us spend more than five hours online each day, whether we’re working, studying, shopping, entertaining ourselves or staying connected with friends and family.
Not surprisingly, anything that prevents us from being online for even short periods of time continues to be a source of considerable inconvenience, and in some cases can even have life or death consequences. In this year’s survey, 20 per cent of us said we experienced a major internet disruption, down from 27 per cent the previous year.
Disruption
While ISP outages account for a significant share of outages reported in Canada, extreme weather events and natural disasters, such as the series of flash floods that struck Nova Scotia in July and the wildfires that swept through various regions of the country in the spring and summer of 2023, continue to deprive Canadians of connectivity, often for lengthy periods. For example, among residents of Nova Scotia who reported experiencing one or more service disruptions, 92 per cent attributed them to weather and climate-related events.
Generative AI
Over the last year and a half, the explosive growth of generative AI chatbots, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google Gemini and Meta AI, represented a massive technology shift that has begun to have an impact on the way Canadians use the internet. To date, that impact has been small, with just 16 per cent of us having actually used a generative AI tool or platform in the last year, primarily to experiment or to create content for personal use. In addition to low adoption and some skepticism about the benefits of AI, concerns about the technology currently outweigh any feelings of excitement for many Canadians. Just over half of respondents (51 per cent) say they’re concerned about the negative consequences of generative AI tools, while only one in five (17 per cent) say they’re excited about what AI has to offer.
Social media
If they’re not yet sold on the benefits of AI chatbots, Canadians also have mixed feelings about another staple of online life in Canada: social media platforms like Facebook and X (formerly Twitter). When it comes to Facebook, it’s a bit complicated. With 61 per cent of Canadians using the platform, it still dominates the social media landscape, but, as shared in last year’s Factbook, it’s still more likely than any of its competitors to be labeled as “toxic” (28 per cent), “addictive” (25 per cent) and “unsafe for children” (28 per cent). Just 14 per cent of us described Facebook as “helpful.” For many Canadians, X is equally problematic, ranking highest among the social platforms for promoting polarizing content (18 per cent) and misinformation and disinformation (18 per cent). Another key concern expressed by more than half of Canadians is the impact that the spread of misinformation and disinformation, especially in the form of deepfakes on social media, could have on elections.
Despite its inherent complexities and the many challenges that must be overcome as it evolves, the internet continues to provide a wide range of benefits to Canadians, including providing access to information and greater economic opportunity, as well as helping to foster a greater sense of community across our vast geography.
Stay tuned for the upcoming blog posts that will dig deeper into the key findings from the 2024 Canada’s Internet Factbook.
