15.2mn UK homes now have Internet access, up nearly 1mn from last year

August 29, 2007 – There are now 15.2mn homes in the UK with Internet access, up nearly 1mn from last year, according to new research from National Statistics.

61% of homes in the UK were found to now have an Internet connection, up from 54% in 2006.  The survey, conducted with 1,200 adults in Great Britain and 400 adults in Northern Ireland, also found that 84% of households which have gone online have a broadband connection, compared to 69% in May 2006.  London and south-west England had the highest proportion online with 69%, while Northern Ireland was lowest at 52%.

Age was found to be a significant factor, with 71% of those aged over 65 saying they have never used the Internet, whilst for those aged 16 to 24 the figure was just 4%.  “There was still a large difference between the number of young and older people accessing the Internet,” the report stated.

Internet shopping was also found to be on the rise, with 53% of respondents reporting that they have made purchases online, compared to 44% last year.  However the research found that users were not taking online security seriously enough.  46% of Internet users said that they never or hardly ever make a back-up of files on their computer – and of those, 21% had been victim of a computer virus within the past 12 months.