UK Becoming More Internet-Friendly

The proportion of adults actually using the internet at home has increased from 31% to 39% in the past year. Of these 19 million users, more than half (54%) are men and 68% are under 44 years of age. A similar proportion can be described as white collar (ABC1).

In addition to those with internet access at home, it is estimated that 37% of UK individuals aged 15 and over has access to the internet at school or in the workplace and 26% are defined as users.

Taking this into account, Continental calculates that 21.5 million Britons, or 44% of the population, are regular internet users. This represents an increase of 68% since 2000.

The spread of broadband The high-speed advantages of broadband have led many to abandon their dial-up connections in the past few years. The switch over has intensified in the past year and Continental claims that the number of UK homes with broadband has increased from 750,000 in 2002 to 2.4 million today. This is equivalent to 19% of all internet households.

The growth of broadband shows no sign of abating as in a survey carried out for the report, one third of narrowband users expressed some likelihood that they would upgrade to a faster connection in the next the next year. Based on these findings, it is estimated that 1.5 million homes will acquire broadband in the next six to twelve months.

Online spending UK internet users spent an average of £470 online in the last 12 months taking the total outlay to £10.1 billion (not including business spending). This compares with the figures of £305 and £5.5 billion in last year’s report. It is noticeable that those in broadband homes, who make up 23% of all users, account for 44% of all consumer online expenditure.

Men account for almost two-thirds of internet spending (£6.5 billion) and those of AB social class spent £5 billion online last year. The most popular purchases amongst all buyers were CD/DVDs, books, tickets and computer related items.