I need recent data (no more than 4yrs old) about how many different
personal (not work-related) contacts the average email user has.

If you can find how many of those are family and how many are friends,
expect a tip.
Another tip if you can tell me how many new personal contacts an email
user finds every year.

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Request for Question Clarification by techtor-ga on 03 Apr 2004 06:20 PST

Hello Ale123,
You know, one problem with this question is that it's really hard to
determine whether an email account is personal or for work only. This
is because there are accounts, even those in Yahoo and Hotmail that
people use for both work and personal use. One thing that can be
distinguished are the accounts for companies, such as for
employee@companyx.com (a generic example), so if you wish to exclude
these and just count the personal webmail and ISP account mails, it
might be easier. But do tell me what you had in mind.

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Clarification of Question by ale123-ga on 06 Apr 2004 06:59 PDT

Hello techtor-ga

What I'm really interested into is the number of personal contacts; it
isn't really important if the email account of those contacts is
personal or not.
Example: in your contacts you could have your boss' address, your
father's work address, your father's personal address, and your best
friend's work address. This makes 1 work-related contact (your boss) and
2 personal contacts (your father, your best friend). What counts is the
number of people in your contacts list, and why they are there: for
personal or work reasons.

<Personal email usage statistics in the USA.

The 2000 general social survey looks at the number of  friends and
relatives contacted at least once a year, the means of contact
(including email). The differences in contact rates for internet and
non-internet users are also studied. The study found that the average
number of relatives and friends kept in contact with annually was
about 20. Internet use was found to have an effect on the number of
personal contacts. Those with over 10 hours use had 27 contacts whilst
non-users had 16.

Table 1B shows the number of Email contacts.
http://www.stanford.edu/group/siqss/itandsociety/v01i01/v01i01a06.pdf

According to a study by UCLA, over a quarter of internet users (26.2)
have online friends with an average of 12.9 friends.
http://www-personal.si.umich.edu/~rfrost/courses/SI110/readings/DigiDivide/Scope_of_the_Net.pdf

According to a 2001 UCLA study, 18.8 percent of internet users have
met someone personally that they originally met online. They report an
average of six new friends met in person in 2001. 
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2001-11/uoc--2ui112801.php>

A Pew study shows who is receiving emails.
http://www.pewinternet.org/reports/chart.asp?img=7_get_email.gif>

<Search strategy:>

<"online friends" average study>
<://www.google.com/search?q=respondents+%22online+friends%22+%22average+of%22&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&start=20&sa=N>

<" number of online friends">
<://www.google.com/search?q=+%22+number+of+online+friends%22+&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&start=40&sa=N>
 

<Hope this helps.>

very good job.