ONS Q4-2011 Results Summary

Age

As in previous quarters, the majority of people in all age groups, apart from those aged 75 or more, had used the Internet. The largest proportion of Internet users was in the youngest age group (those aged 16 to 24), at 98.7%. This represents 7.18 million people.

There were decreases in the numbers of non-users in all age groups. The largest decrease was amongst those aged 55 to 64, where there were 86,000 fewer non-users by 2011 Q4, compared with Q3, with the percentage of non-users in this age group decreasing from 19.8% to 18.7%. There were significant decreases in the other age groups, including a drop of 55,000 amongst those aged 75 and over.

Gender

By 2011 Q4, there were 21.15 million male and 20.84 million female Internet users. Men were more likely to have used the Internet than women, with 86.1% of men having used it compared with 81.0% of women. There were 1.49 million more women than men who had never used the Internet; 4.85 million women compared with 3.36 million men.

Disability

By 2011 Q4, there were 3.98 million disabled adults who had never used the Internet. This represents 34.5% of those who were disabled and just under half of the 8.20 million who had never used it. By 2011 Q4, there was a decrease of 276,000 disabled Internet non-users, compared with Q3. Of those adults who reported no disability, 10.9% had never used the Internet.

Earnings

Of those adults in employment whose gross weekly pay was less than £200 per week, 8.1% had not used the Internet. The proportion of Internet non-users declines with each successively higher weekly pay band up to those paid £800 to £899 where there were no Internet non-users.