Insight Analysis: Total Number Of Home Internet Users In UK Hits 13.5 Million
The number of UK home internet users has reached 13.5 million, according to the February 2001 figures from Jupiter MMXI. This represents an increase of 1 million users since October 2000.
The UK’s online population is now estimated to spend an average of six hours and 48 minutes surfing the internet each month, with men aged 55+ adding an extra 30 minutes per month. Men still make up the majority – nearly 50% – of home internet users. Women represent 35% of the 13.5m total and children between the ages of 2 and 14 make up 15.2%. This last group have shown the greatest uptake of the medium recently, as the percentage of users in this category has risen from 10.7% in October 2000.
When Jupiter analysed the incomes of households with internet access in March last year, only 15.9% of usage was found to be in households with an income below £15k. A year later, this has risen to 17.3%, while the percentage of users from the top income bracket of £45k and upwards has shrunk from 19.3% to 14.7%. The spread among the intervening income brackets remains fairly stable, with around 25% from the £15-24k households, 20% from £25-35k households and 13% from the £35-45k households.
Jupiter has also observed that patterns of web usage are becoming more refined for the different groups online. These follow similar patterns to media usage offline, with, for example, WWF and Disney proving popular with kids on and offline, while members of the male 55+ category favour financial and government sites.
Mari Kim Coleman, vice president of international measurement services for Jupiter MMXI comments: “The UK internet population is maturing, and with over 13m people now online, we are seeing how consumers are making more definitive choices of how they spend their time on the web.”