Hello danielormsby-ga,
I have found several sources which tell more or less the same story,
with slight differences depending on the country surveyed. I hope
you find these details interesting:
1. A survey carried out in the USA in 2001 (A NATION ONLINE: How
Americans Are Expanding Their Use Of The Internet, by the National
Telecommunications and Information Administration at
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/dn/html/toc.htm ) found the
following:
1a. Of the total population, 53.9% used the Internet.
In households with an annual income of less than $15,000, Internet use
was 25%, compared with 80% in households with more than $75,000.
Similarly, of those aged 16 and over, the Internet was used by 65.4%
of employed and 36.9% of unemployed people.
“Computer and Internet use are strongly associated with the age of the
individual. As Figure 2-5 shows, children and teenagers were the most
likely to be computer users. Computer use is also relatively
high—about 70 percent in 2001—among people in their prime workforce
years (generally people in their 20s to their 50s). Those above this
age range are less likely to be computer users. This pattern is
consistent in both 1997 and 2001. Rates of Internet use show a
similar pattern that holds true for each year of data. Internet use
rates climb steadily as age increases for children through young
adults, level off at relatively high rates for people between ages 26
and 55, and then fall among people at higher ages.”
Internet use was over 70% for those aged over 10 but under 20 years,
and dropped to about 60-65% for those aged 20-50 years, and decreased
further from 50% to 10% as age increased from 60 to 80 years. “In
September 2001, the Internet use rate was 53.9 percent for males and
53.8 percent for females… Women, from approximately age 20 to age 50,
are more likely to be Internet users than men. From about age 60 and
older, men have higher rates of Internet use than women. ”
Internet use increased with education, being just over 10% for those
without a high school diploma to about 85% for those who had studied
beyond a bachelor degree.
People living in non-central city urban households used the Internet
more than those living in city centers or in the countryside.
“Internet use among Whites and Asian American and Pacific Islanders
hovered around 60 percent, while Internet use rates for Blacks (39.8
percent) and Hispanics (31.6 percent) trailed behind.”
Summarised from: http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/dn/html/Chapter2.htm
1b.
Breakdown of Internet use among all users was: email 84%; information
on products and services 67.3%; accessing sites with news, weather and
sports information 61.8%; games sites 42.1%, purchases 39.1%; health
information 34.9%; government services information 30.9%; school
assignments 24.8%; access TV, movies and radio 18.8%; chat rooms and
listservs 17.3%; online banking 17.9%; job search 16.4%; investment
and stocks 8.8%; making phone calls 5.2%; online education 3.5%.
This pattern of use was not affected by geography and type of
household, but was influenced by gender, age, race and income.
“More men than women used the Internet to check news, weather, and
sports (67.1 percent versus 56.7 percent respectively), but more women
went online to find information on health services or practices (39.8
percent contrasted with 29.6 percent for men). A higher proportion of
male Internet users use the Internet for financial purposes as
compared with females: they were more than twice as likely as females
to trade online (12.6 percent of males compared to 5.3 percent of
females), and males were slightly more likely to bank online than
female users (19.3 percent versus 16.5 percent).
A larger percentage of male Internet users reported using the Internet
for entertainment-oriented activities. A higher proportion of males
versus females played games online (45.3 percent versus 39.1 percent,
respectively) and viewed television or movies or listened to the radio
(21.9 percent versus 15.9 percent, respectively).”
Those aged over 55 were the group most likely to use the Internet to
find health information, and least likely to use it for games, job
hunts, chat rooms and list servs, television, movies, radio and stock
trading.
Online banking was greatest in the 25-34 years range (26.1%), followed
by 35-44 (21.3%), 45-54 (17.7%) and 55+ (13.0%).
Online shopping was done by 53% of people aged 25-34 and 51.2% of
those aged 35-44 and was most popular in these age groups.
Those in households with more than $75,000 annual income were most
likely to use the Internet for: “search for health services or product
information; search for government services or agency information;
purchase products or services; search for products and services; bank,
trade, or e-mail; or search for news, sports, or weather.”
Summarised from
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/dn/html/Chapter3.htm
1c
Of school-aged children (between the ages of 5-17) 58.5 percent use
the Internet. “More than three-quarters (75.6 percent) of 14-17 year
olds and 65.4 percent of 10-13 year olds use the Internet at some
location… Among 18-24 year olds, Internet use is heavily affected by
whether or not they attend school or college. Among those in school
or college, 85.0 percent use the Internet, compared to 51.5 percent of
those who are not in school.”
Of children aged 10-17, “overall school use still varies widely: 34.3
percent for children in the lowest income category, compared to 62.7
percent for children who live in the highest income households.
Additionally, home Internet use is much higher for those who live in
high income households: 82.5 percent for children in families earning
$75,000 and higher, compared to 21.4 percent for children in families
earning $15,000 and below. For these reasons, overall Internet use
among children has a wider differential by income than computer use.
Children in families at the lowest income level have an overall
Internet use rate about half that of children at the highest income
level: 45.7 percent, compared to 87.5 percent.”
The use of the Internet by young people has its own patterns:
“While older adults tend to use the Internet to check for news,
sports, weather, or research products and services, children and young
adults are more likely to use the Internet to complete school
assignments or play games. And while very high percentages of all age
groups – adults and children alike – use e-mail, older children and
young adults are doing so at much higher levels.”
Use of the Internet for school assignments is over 50% in children
aged over 10, about 75% in those aged 18-24 and nearly 20% among those
in elementary schools.
“A very high percentage of all teenagers (62.1 percent) and young
adults in school (75.0 percent) use e-mail, compared to 45.2 percent
of the overall U.S. population. These two age groups also go online
in higher percentages than other age groups to engage in chat rooms
and to listen to the radio or watch TV or movies.”
“Generally, as children grow older, they use the Internet for more
types of activities. The one exception is playing games, which peaks
among 14-17 year olds. While Internet use is generally lower among
5-9 year olds, 25 percent of this age group uses the Internet to play
games.”
Summarised from http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/dn/html/Chapter5.htm
2. The General Social Survey carried out in Canada in 2000, and
published in March 2001, found the following:
Internet use decreased with age. The percentage of people using the
Internet according to age group was: 84.5% for 15-24 years, 66.1% for
25-34 years, 60.3% for 35-44 years, 50.7% for 45-54 years, and 18.7%
for those aged 55 years and over.
The biggest single group of users was teenagers aged 15-19 years, of
whom 90% used it at some point in the 12 months before the survey.
Overall all, slightly more men (56%) than women (50%) used the
Internet.
Internet use increased with education. Among those aged 20 years and
over, 79% of people with university degrees were users, but only 13%
of those who did not achieve a diploma in high school..
Internet use was higher in richer households than in poorer
households, and this difference increased with age. For example,
comparing use in households with less than $20,000 annual income to
those with over $100,000, the respective figures were 77% and 94% for
people aged 15-24 years, and 8% and 77% for people aged 55-64 years.
Internet use was greater in towns (55%) than in the countryside (45%).
Most people used the Internet to find information about products and
services. 28% of male and 19% of female users actually made an online
purchase. E-banking increased with income, and was used by 15% of
those with a household income of below $30,000 compared with 34% of
those whose incomes were over $80,000. The highest use of the
Internet to make purchases was in the 25-39 years age group, while the
highest use of e-banking was by those aged 30-39. People aged 15-24
were least likely to make purchases or use e-banking.
The patterns of surfing were as follows: 75% visited sites for
information about goods and services, 65% visited news sites, 46%
visited sites with health information, 41% visited sites relating to
government programs and services, 35% visited games sites, 30% used
chat sites, 24% visited sites to make a purchase, 23% visited
e-banking sites, 16% used newsgroups and listservs.
Teenagers and seniors were least likely to surf for information about
products and services, and teenagers were the lowest users of news
sites. More men than women used news sites, but more women than men
looked for information on health and medicine.
Information summarised from: The Daily. Monday, March 26, 2001
http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/010326/d010326a.htm The site has
further links to the full text of the report plus associated tables,
as well as contact numbers for further information.
3. A worldwide survey, carried out in 1998, found that “The use of the
internet, world-wide is concentrated in the age-groups 20-45 (which
represents 64.7%) and tailing off each five-year age span thereafter.
The over-sixties together make up less than 5% of the users. The
European pattern diverges markedly from the rest, with 68.4% of users
concentrated in the age groups 21-35. It is possible that this might
have something to do with a small sample size (1998 n=369) but the
pattern persists in earlier samples.”
And
“There was once a time when the distribution of internet users was
overwhelmingly male. In 1994 they represented 95% of all
usersworld-wide, but this has rapidly fallen to 65% today. One notable
feature is that Europe has been much slower in this transition than
either the USA or the rest of the world. This pattern, too, is evident
in earlier surveys.”
From Basic Net Data by Richard T. Griffiths (Leiden University)
http://www.let.leidenuniv.nl/history/ivh/chap5.htm
4. An Australian survey by the National Office for the Information
Economy found the following purchases were made online in the 12
months up to May 2000:
“36% of all online shoppers in Australia bought books (down from 38%
in May 1999). Other items purchased online were PC software (18%),
music products (18% - up from 14% in 1999), PC hardware (14%), food &
groceries (13%), holidays (12% - up from 8.5% in 1999), tickets /
entertainment (9%), clothes or shoes (9%), and other goods / services
(35% up from 22.8% in 1999)”
“Approximately 35% of online shoppers spent up to $100, a further 35%
$101–500, while 15% spent $501-1000 and 11% more than $1000”
http://www.noie.gov.au/projects/framework/Progress/ie_stats/StateofPlayNov2000/intensity/intensity_3.htm
5. A survey of online purchases in the US in 2000 found that:
“most American consumers have yet to make their first online purchase…
only one in three U.S. households made an online purchase… Young
adults ages 25-34 make most of those purchases. According to the
survey, 55 percent of this age group bought something online this
year. On the other end of the Net- buying spectrum, only 10 percent of
consumers aged 65 and up are spending time and money online… Out of
respondents earning more than $50,000 a year, 53 percent have made an
online purchase. In the $35,000-$49,999 bracket, only one in three was
an online buyer… Spending trends continue toward the inexpensive, with
60 percent of respondents reporting that their most expensive online
purchase was under $200. Only 11 percent of respondents reported they
spent more than $1,000… Books were the hottest consumer purchase. Some
45 percent of respondents bought a book online in the past year.
Travel-related purchases were the second hottest buy at 30 percent,
and CD's came in third for 27 percent of respondents. Computer
hardware and software fell back a bit, with 26 percent of respondents
buying high-tech gear”
http://www.infousa.com/homesite/News/10nov00_offline.html
6. Internet users aged 16-22 years have been identified as major
online buyers in a survey of 1999 buying habits.
“They consider the Net a vast marketplace where some of them already
spend more than 10% of their disposable income, snapping up everything
from books to cosmetics, travel to groceries. This year, more than
one-third of 16- to 22-year-olds will buy online, spending $4.5
billion. Today, the bulk of these purchases occur at Amazon.com and
CDNOW”
“Nearly 80% of wired young consumers use the Web to window shop. The
products that they research the most - CDs, books, and computer
hardware - mirror their interests and spending patterns. The same
holds true for adults who most often research cars and travel online.
But online young consumers also use the Web to research products that
far fewer of them actually buy - 49% research cars, and 40% research
travel.”
“The average young online shopper spent less money last year than an
adult counterpart - $403 versus $608 per individual adult and $1,167
per online household. But young consumers' online spending represents
a full 13% of their disposable income, compared with 3% for adults.”
College students are most likely to buy online.
“High schoolers stock up on CDs and PC hardware, and college students
snap up books, event tickets, and consumer electronics, while those On
Their Own are the most likely to buy cosmetics, healthcare items, and
jewelry.”
“Boys and young men are more likely to buy online - they buy from more
stores and spend 65% more than girls. Girls, however, like shopping
more and shop more offline, in malls, groceries, and drug stores. They
are more value-conscious, willing to expend time to find a bargain,
while boys are more convenience-conscious .”
“Young consumers and adults frequent many of the same stores online -
Amazon, barnesandnoble.com, CDNOW, Ticketmaster, BMG Music Service,
and Columbia House rank highly with both age groups. But young Net
buyers' top sites also include Gen-Y-focused stores like Delias.com
and Alloy. Traffic also varies by segment. High school students are
more likely to visit Alloy, Delias.com, and buy.com, while college
students flock to Varsitybooks.com, and the On Their Own segment
frequents drugstore.com and Wal-Mart.com.”
From: http://www.luoncommunity.com/html/archives/comm_17.html ("Young
Consumers Jump On Net Shopping")
Search strategy: 1. “Internet use” “age groups” 2. online "age
groups" purchases types products |
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