When it comes to time online, Britons and Canadians appear to be
catching up a little with Americans. Gallup Polls conducted last
December in Canada, the United States, and Great Britain* measured
reported Internet use in the three countries. The U.S. poll shows
that almost half of Americans (48%) say they use the Internet
daily, virtually unchanged from the year before. A similar 47% of
Canadians report using the Internet that often, up marginally from
43% in 2003. In Great Britain, the percentage of daily Internet
users increased between 2003 and 2004, from 29% to 36%.
Gallup has previously documented that
American men are a little more likely to be heavy Internet users
than women are. Currently, 52% of American men say they use the
Internet daily, compared with 45% of women. A similar pattern
exists in Great Britain, but the gender gap in Canada is much
narrower. In Great Britain, 44% of men say they use the Internet
daily, compared with just 28% of women. In Canada, 49% of men
report daily excursions into cyberspace, versus 44% of
women.
An Internet for the Ages
It's tempting to assume that the youngest adults in each country
-- those who are most likely to be early adopters of new
technologies -- are also the most avid Internet users. That's true
for the youngest age groups in both Canada and Great Britain, where
daily Internet use falls off significantly with age.
In Canada, 62% of 18- to 29-year-olds tell Gallup they log on
every day, but daily use drops to 53% for 30- to 49-year-olds, 43%
for 50- to 64-year-olds, and just 16% for Canadians aged 65 and
older. Fifty-four percent of Britons between the ages of 18 and 29
are online every day, but daily use declines to 44% for 30- to
49-year-olds and 27% for those 50 to 64. Only 11% of British people
aged 65 and older say they log on each day. Only in the United
States is the pattern slightly different: Daily Internet use is
highest among 30- to 49-year-old Americans at 59%. Half of 18- to
29-year-olds (49%) and 50- to 64-year-olds (50%) also use the
Internet every day; 21% of those 65 and older do so.
Bottom Line
It's a vast understatement to say the Internet pervades
21st-century life. Sending e-mail, shopping, arranging
travel plans, checking news, playing games, watching movies,
downloading music, taking a course, finding a mate, listening to
the radio, paying bills, getting medical advice -- so many aspects
of life can be efficiently accomplished online. So it's not
surprising that governments and private industries around the globe
are investing heavily in the technology necessary to make their
populations just as comfortable in cyberspace as Americans are.
And the developing world can't be far behind. China, where
Internet use has exploded from 2% of the population in 1999 to 12%
today -- is a good example (see "Internet Use: Behind 'The Great
Firewall of China'" in Related Items). Literature for the
U.N.-sponsored "World Summit on the Information Society," to be
held in Tunisia in November 2005, sums up the importance of global
Internet access: "The Internet has become an important global
resource ... to both the developed world as a business and social
tool and the developing world as a passport to equitable
participation, as well as economic, social and educational
development."
*Results in the United States are based on telephone
interviews with 1,003 national adults, aged 18 and older, conducted
Dec. 5-8, 2004. For results based on the total sample of
national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum
margin of sampling error is ±3 percentage points. The
survey was conducted by Gallup USA.
Results in Canada are based on telephone interviews with
1,004 national adults, aged 18 and older, conducted Dec. 6-12,
2004. For results based on the total sample of national adults, one
can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling
error is ±3 percentage points. The survey was
conducted by Gallup Canada.
Results in Great Britain are based on telephone interviews
with 1,009 national adults, aged 18 and older, conducted Dec. 1-21,
2004. For results based on the total sample of national adults, one
can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling
error is ±3 percentage points. The survey was
conducted by Gallup UK.
