Lithuania, with 92 percent, followed by Estonia with 91 percent, had the highest percentages of those using the internet for reading the news, with France well behind at 38 percent, the Eurostat statistics agency said.

The French were also laggards when it came to using social media, with only 40 percent of internet users in France saying they post messages on sites like Twitter and Facebook. Only Czechs were less forthcoming, with just 35 percent of users saying they actively use social media. Portugal topped the category at 75 percent.

Finland was the leader for internet banking with 91 percent of users and for online travel services, at 69 percent.

Overall, sending and receiving e-mails were the most common use of the internet, at 89 percent, followed by finding information at 83 percent. In all, 61 percent of users read online news, 54 percent used internet banking services, 52 percent posted messages to social media and 50 percent used travel services.