Household Internet Connectivity Rises To Over 15 Million

The number of homes with access to broadband internet has jumped by 40% year on year to 51%, the body’s research uncovered, with homes in London and the south-west leading the way in terms of the number of homes with internet access at 69%. London also came top for the numbers of people connected to broadband services.

Of the UK households with internet access, 84% had a broadband connection in 2007.

Yorkshire and the Humber and the north-east had the lowest access levels with just 52%, while Northern Ireland displayed the same levels of take-up.

The ONS also found that Northern Ireland remained the region with the lowest levels of broadband access, with figures showing just 40% of all households connected.

The figures also show that in 2007, households in the north-east had the highest digital television take-up with 84% and Northern Ireland the lowest, with 59%.

According to the ONS, the most popular activity of recent internet users was searching for information about goods or services at 86%. This was carried out more by men (88%) than women (84%).

Women’s most popular activity was using email at 85%, which was men’s second most popular, also at 85%.

Of the activities surveyed, there were only two where women carried out the activity more than men. These were seeking health related information and looking for information related to education, training or courses.

A recent study from the Online Publishers Association said that US internet users are spending nearly half their online time visiting content, a 37% increase in share of time from four years ago (see Ofcom Plans New Public Service Channel To Rival BBC).

Meanwhile, JupiterResearch forecast that the worldwide online population will increase from 1.1 billion users in 2006 to 1.5 billion in 2011, representing 22% of the overall worldwide population in that year (see Global Online Population To Increase).