travisjon-ga,
Thanks for an interesting question.
Statistics on computer use and internet access are presented in
different ways by different sources. Some provide a straight
headcount (millions of people) while others look at "penetration"
(millions of households), and still other report only percentages
rather than direct numbers.
Still, with a bit of numerical manipultion, we can get you the
statistics you want.
The best source that I know of for fairly up-to-date information on
computer and internet use in a broad cross-section of industrialized
countries is the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Develeopment -- OECD -- in Paris.
Their Information Technology statistics website is here:
http://www.oecd.org/document/23/0,2340,en_2649_34225_33987543_1_1_1_1,00.html
OECD Key ICT indicators
and you can see that they offer a wide variety of stats on, e.g.,
broadband access, mobile telephone use, and so on.
For the statistics of interest to you, I turned to the following tables:
6a. Households with access to the Internet in selected OECD countries
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/19/45/34083073.xls
6b. Households with access to a home computer
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/19/46/34083096.xls
[NOTE: these open up as spreadsheet tables, which can be a bit
daunting if you're not familiar with them ]
Although the data show statistics for all OECD countries, the
pertinent numbers for the UK are these:
6a. Households with access to the Internet, percentage of all households
United Kingdom
2001..........2002..........2003
40.00.........49.72.........55.11%
6b. Households with access to a home computer, percentage of all households
[hover mouse over bars of the graph to see actual data]
2001..........2002..........2003..........2004
49.00..........57.93........63.22.........65.26%
So the data show a pretty rapid increase in both computer access and
internet access in recent years, with the most recent data showing
that 65% of households in the UK had computers in 2004, and that 55%
of households had internet access in 2003 (a figure which will
presumably be even a bit higher once 2004 data becomes available).
The OECD data are not presented in terms of millions of people, but
with a bit of estimation, we can work out the numbers.
According to the official source of UK Statistics on population:
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=760
"In 2003 the UK was home to 59.6 million people"
Using that as a guide, we can estimate the numbers of people with
computers and internet access as follows (by multiplying the
population by the percents):
Internet access:
2001..........2002..........2003
40.00.........49.72.........55.11%
23.84.........29.63.........32.84 million people
Access to a computer
2001..........2002..........2003..........2004
49.00.........57.93.........63.22.........65.26%
29.20.........34.53.........37.68.........38.89 million people.
There's a bit of an independent confirmation of these numbers that
helps to validate them. The Nielsen group (the same organization that
is famous for its Nielsen ratings of TV shows) conducted a survey of
internet use in the UK and found that about 34 million people were
online in the UK in recent years, as you can see in the article here:
http://www.bcentral.co.uk/issues/marketing/ebusiness/howmany.mspx
How Many People Use the Internet?
"According to research company Nielsen there are upwards of 34 million
Britons currently connected..."
This jives very well with the number I estimated above of 32.84
million people in the UK with internet access in 2003.
I trust this information fully answers your question. However, please
don't rate this answer until you have everything you need. If you
would like any additional information, just post a Request for
Clarification to let me know how I can assist you further, and I'm at
your service.
All the best,
pafalafa-ga
search strategy -- Used bookmarked resources for internet statistics |
