The governments Office for National Statistics (ONS) has issued its latest '2011 Internet Access - Households and Individuals' report, which reveals that 19 million UK households (77%) now have an internet connection (up from 73% in 2010) and a total of 41.26 million adults (82.3%) have used the internet.

Sadly this means that 8.73 million adults have never used the Internet (17.4% of the adult population), which is down from 9.2 million in 2010. Mobile Broadband and public Wi-Fi (wireless) services have played a big part. Some 45% of internet users (17.6 million) used a mobile phone (Smartphone) to go online in 2011, which is up from 23% in 2009.

The use of Wi-Fi Hotspots has also increased markedly with 4.9 million people using wireless hotspots (13% of Internet users) to get online via thousands of locations (e.g. airports, rail stations, hotels etc.) around the country, which is up from just 0.7 million people in 2007.

2011 ONS Survey Highlights
* 21% of Internet users did not believe their skills were sufficient to protect their personal data.

* 19% of Internet users felt that their skills were not sufficient to prevent a computer virus.

* The number of women using mobile phones to access the Internet has more than doubled, from 18% of Internet users to 39% in 2011.

* 84.6% of men have used the internet compared with 80.1% of women.

* 38% of Internet users use mobile devices (laptop, tablet or other portable computer) away from the home or workplace.

* 91% of 16-24 year old Internet users take part in social networking on websites such as Facebook or Twitter.

* Social networking is more popular among women (60%) than with men (54%).

* 18% of Internet users aged 65 and over indicating that they participated in social networking.

* Over 12 million people (31% of Internet users) sold goods or services online, up from 7.9 million (21%) in 2010.

* 21% of Internet users made telephone or video calls online in 2011.

It's interesting to note that personal wealth still plays a big part in getting online. Some 9.2% of adults with an employed gross pay of below £200 per week had not used the internet, yet this falls to zero for anybody paid £1000+ a week (lucky devils).