Usage Patterns and Demographics

Demographics

There were 51,442,10 internet users in the UK (representing 82.5% of the population) in June 2010, according to Internet World Stats. This was up by 234.0% compared to 2000. (Internet World Stats, June 2010)

Around three quarters (73%) of UK adults used the internet in 2009, up from two-thirds (63%) in 2007, according to Ofcom's Media Literacy reports, which reveal the UK's media consumption habits and attitudes.

Adults in Scotland are the biggest home users of the internet (10.6 hours per week), with adults in England logging on from home 8.3 hours per week , those in Wales 6.8 hours per week and adults in Northern Ireland using the internet at home the least at 6.5 hours per week. (Ofcom, May 2010)

The proportion of the British population with access to the internet has grown from 73.92% in December 2009 to 75.99% in March 2010, according to an IMRG report prepared by the British Population Survey (BPS). (IMRG, April 2010)

More than 39 million UK residents use the internet in 2009, according to estimates by eMarketer. By 2013, nearly 44 million will be online, representing more than 70% of the total UK population.

Usage has risen in all age groups, but especially among young people. The UK's Office of Communications (Ofcom) reported that 2/3 of children ages 5 to 7 were online in 2009, an increase of 16 percentage points since 2007. Among children ages 8 to 11, Web penetration rose from 65% in 2007 to 77% in 2009.

Marketers can be confident that virtually all segments of the UK population, except some senior citizens and lower-income households, are using the Web more than ever to research products and services and to keep tabs on brand offerings, according to eMarketer.

Most UK Web users are online more frequently, too. Ofcom noted that in 2009, 73% of adults who had been online in the previous three months were daily internet users, compared with 69% in 2008. (eMarketer, December 2009)

43.7 million people will use the internet in the UK by 2013, according to eMarketer. This would be up from 39.4 million in 2009.

Internet users in the UK 2008-2013:
- 2008: 38.1 million
- 2009: 39.4 million
- 2010: 40.6 million
- 2011: 41.7 million
- 2012: 42.8 million
- 2013: 43.7 million
(eMarketer, May 2009)

Some 18.31 million UK households now have internet access, which is an increase of 1.85 million from 2008, according to a new report published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). In 2009, 16.5 million people - 63% of all UK house holds - had broadband connections, representing an increase of 6.6 million since 2006.

The report also found that an estimated 73 %or 27.3 million adults accessed the internet everyday or almost everyday.

But 16-24 age group took the prize for most frequent users, with an estimated 86% using it everyday.

The ONS found that the most popular use of the internet was for email.  Increases in the popularity and use of social networking sites were shown in the findings with an increase of 24% to 40% of users who said they'd uploaded self created content.

It also reported an 8% increase in the number of users listening to, or viewing content, online since 2008, which illustrates a growing number of broadcasters are making their content available online, said the report.

The majority of people (94%) still accessed the internet from home, claimed the report.  But the growing numbers of Wi-Fi hotspots in the UK between 2007 and 2009 has lead to an increase from just under 700,000 people accessing via hotspots in 2007 to almost 2.5 million in 2009. (ITPro, August 2009)

Internet users will have to make do with slower and more unreliable connections as online traffic increases, according to a report by Nemertes Research. The report claims that services like the iPlayer and websites like YouTube could mean that bandwidth exceeded supply as early as 2010, according to a report in the Sunday Times.

Experts claimed that this would lead on to computers being disrupted and going off line for minutes at a time. The researchers said that the web had reached a critical point and even the recession had failed to stave off problems, as more people were looking for work or working online from home. (ITPRO at , April 2009)