Wifi use in European households increased 53% over the past year, according to a survey from Vodafone.

Changes in the way people work, live and play mean their homes are also their offices, classrooms, digital playgrounds and a place where people can shop for everything from the latest gadgets to weekly groceries, says Vodafone.

The rise in home wifi use directly correlates with the fast-growing number of smart devices found in each household, with the average number of connected devices in Europe now standing at 12 per home. That has more than doubled in the past five years, according to Statista.

The growth of home applications such as streaming services, gaming, home working and content creation has also contributed to the sharp increase.

As a result, nine in ten people now say it is important to have reliable wifi in every corner of the home. This is perhaps why a number of brands have started bringing out wifi extenders or boosters to improve connection around the home without the need to upgrade.

For example, Vodafone’s Super Wifi (www.vodafone.com/about-vodafone/what-we-do/consumer-products-and-services/broadband-and-super-wifi) uses small wifi access points that act as extenders adjusting the network and providing coverage to the entire house, ensuring users can stay connected wherever they are in their home. It also comes with guarantees, and experts are on-hand to help.

Europeans also want to be able to control the way they use their home internet.

Three quarters said that although they may have several different brands of smart devices, they’d like them all to work together seamlessly and 71% said they’d prefer to have one single, easy-to-use app to control all their smart home devices, instead of different apps from different brands.

The research also revealed that they’d like to monitor and optimise domestic energy consumption, as well as having a product that allowed them to browse the internet safely.

Vodafone has more than 27 million broadband customers and is continually responding to the changing demands of home wifi use. This includes looking at ways to ensure users are better protected online, including products such as Vodafone Secure Net (securenet.vodafone.co.uk).

With Secure Net, a family’s devices are protected by automatically blocking harmful sites and quickly protecting against viruses. Through parental control, users can add filters, set restricted hours and control children’s devices remotely.

Interviews of 4000 individuals were conducted by Kantar on behalf of Vodafone in Italy, Germany, Spain and the UK.