BRUSSELS, Dec. 3 (Xinhua) -- Over half of households in the European Union (EU) had access to the Internet and one in two individuals had used Internet search engines, the EU's statistics bureau Eurostat said on Monday.

According to Eurostat, 54 percent EU households had access to the Internet during the first quarter of 2007, compared with 49 percent during the first quarter of 2006, and 42 percent had a broadband connection, compared with 30 percent in 2006.

Dutch families seemed to be fond of web, with 83 percent of households having Internet access, the highest proportion among 27EU member states, followed by Sweden, 79 percent.

The lowest level was registered in Bulgaria, where only 19 percent of households can get online.

Figures showed 57 percent of Europeans had used Internet search engines. Half of them had sent e-mails with attachments, while 30 percent said they kept viruses and spyware off their computers.

Slightly more than one quarter had downloaded and installed software from the Internet. Around one quarter of individuals had taken part in chatrooms, newsgroups or on-line discussions, and 15percent had used the Internet to make phone calls. One tenth had created a web page.