36 Million UK Adults Access the Internet Daily But Millions Don’t Want It

The Office for National Statistics has today published its annual ‘Internet Access – Households and Individuals‘ report, which found that 73% of adults in Great Britain (36 million) go online every day (up from 20m in 2006) and 83% (21m) of homes have an Internet connection (up from 80% in 2012 and 57% in 2006).

However there were 4 million households without Internet access in 2013 (down from 10 million in 2006) and 59% of those simply said they “did not need it” (up from 34% in 2006); this proportional rise is mostly because the number without access has been whittled down to those whom really have no interest in getting online. We certainly shouldn’t force everybody to go online if they don’t want to.

But what about the other reasons for not having an internet connection at home? Some 20% said they lacked the computer skills for it, 13% pointed to equipment costs and 12% noted access cost as being a barrier. In fairness, some ISPs are charging less than £5 a month for broadband (including all you need to get connected) and if cost is still a problem at that level then it may be hard to close the final gap.

Elsewhere the study reported that 42% of households’ access broadband via a fibre optic (FTTP/C) or cable based connection, which is up from 30% last year. By comparison, standard copper DSL (ADSL) broadband has lost its dominance and now only accounts for 45% of homes (down from 57% in 2012).

As a side note just 1% of households still connect via the very old fashioned and superslow dialup (narrowband) method of internet access, which is down from 31% in 2006. By contrast new forms of connectivity, aside from broadband, have long since taken over. For example, half of all adults (53%) access the Internet via a mobile phone (this rises to 89% for those aged 16 to 24) and that’s more than doubled since the 2010 estimate of 24%.

The majority of households with children also have an Internet connection (97%). So what does everybody actually do online these days?

ONS Internet Access – Households and Individuals 2013 (PDF)
http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171778_322713.pdf