Research Shows 52% of UK Households Now Online

Over half of UK households can now access the internet from home, says the latest report from the Office of National Statistics (ONS).

From April to June 2004, over 52% (12.8 million) of households in the UK could access the internet at home, compared to just over 9% (2.2 million) in the same quarter of 1998.

According to the ONS’s latest internet access update, in July 2004, 58% of adults in Great Britain had used the internet in the last three months. The most common useage of the internet among these adults was for emailing friends and family at 85%, followed by finding information about goods or services at 82%, with 82% of those people choosing to access the internet from home, followed by 42% from their workplace.

In July this year, 37% of adults told the ONS they had never used the internet, with 48% stating they did not want to use, had no need or interest in the internet, 37% said they did not use this because they had no web connection, while 32% said they felt they lacked the confidence or knowledge to use it.

As part of the survey, the ONS asked non-internet users to chose a statement to best describe what they thought of the internet; 54% of these chose the statement ‘I have not really considered using the internet before and I am not likely to in the future.’ This group of non-internet users represented 21% of all adults in Britain.

Office of National Statistics: www.statistics.gov.uk

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