Food delivery service has become the number one product acquired over the internet, with the second most popular purchases being clothes. This trend emerged from data published by the National Statistics Office which threw light on ICT usage by households 2024.

It transpires that deliveries from restaurants, fast-food chains or catering services accounted to 205,208 purchases out of a total of 1,074,010 which translates to 19%. Clothes were the second most popular item with 190,595 or 18% of the total. However, there are clear gender preferences as food deliveries were the preferred option among men while clothes were the to most popular choice among women.  The disparity is most striking when it come to bicycles, mopeds, cars or vehicle parts whereby purchases made by females was so low that the number was deemed as being unreliable. In contrast, these items accounted to 25,750 purchases among men.

Another male dominated sector were IT products such as computers, tablets, mobile phones whereby twice as many products were purchased by men compared to women. On the other hand, cosmetics are much more popular among women with the number of purchases outnumbering those made by men with a ratio of three to one.

In terms of services acquired over the internet, the most common purchase is transport from enterprises followed by accommodation from businesses 

The survey revealed that nearly all individuals aged 16 to 44 used the internet in 2024. In contrast, individuals aged 65 to 74 recorded the lowest internet usage levels, with only 70.2 percent. Notwithstanding this, internet usage in Malta exceeded the EU-27 average by 0.5 percentage points.

The target population for this survey included all persons aged between 16 and 74 residing in private households. A gross sample of 2,210 individuals was selected using systematic random sampling from the population register held and maintained by NSO. A total of 1,668 filled questionnaires were collected between April and June 2024. Most surveys were carried out through telephone interviews.