UK Home Net Access Hits 39%, But Growth Levels Off

UK Home Net Access Hits 39%, But Growth Levels Off

Internet access in the UK reached 39% of households in Q4 2001, according to the latest data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) released this morning. This is equivalent to 9.8 million households, or 25.6 million adults, says the ONS.

The data show that the gap between men and women using the web has closed considerably in recent months. The proportion of men accessing the Net remained fairly static between January 2001 (57%) and February 2002 (58%), whilst the percentage of women accessing rose from 45% to 54% over the same period.

Whilst there has been a steady growth in household penetration of the Net in the UK, the rate of growth has slowed appreciably in recent quarters and remained unchanged period on period in Q4, as the graph here shows. This perhaps indicates that we are reaching a ceiling or saturation point in demand.

The fact that 43% of non-users are not bothering to set up internet access due to ‘lack of interest’ suggests that penetration growth is probably set to slow from this point on, perhaps stalling at around 45%. It is interesting to note that ‘lack of interest’ is by far the most common reason for non-use, above ‘lack of confidence/skills’ and ‘no computer for access’.

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