How many adults who live in the UK do you think have never, ever used the internet? You might be surprised to learn that there are apparently over 7 million people in the country who fit into this category.
This surprising fact discovered during research from the Office of National Statistics. They say that 43.5 UK adults are now online, which is an increase of a million over last year’s numbers.
However, the elderly and disabled remain among the most likely to stay away from the internet. Graham Walker is chief of executive of the charity Go On UK and he said that this issue isn’t only about accessing the internet. He said that around 16 million adults in the UK lack “the basic online skills” to be able to confidently use modern digital tools.
London Has the Highest User Rate
The survey which brought these results asked people when the last time was they used the internet. The results gained from this suggest that London has the highest percentage of active internet users (90%). The lowest figure was 79%, which is in Northern Ireland.
When it comes to the gender gap, 4.2 million ladies have never used the internet while the number of chaps in the same boat is 2.8 million. When it comes to the difference in ages, 99% of people between the ages of 16 and 24 and internet users.
At the older end of the spectrum the number of over 75s connected to the internet has increased from 23.8% to 34.3% in the last couple of years, although the fact that there was a smaller sample size for the more elderly age group makes it rather more difficult to draw conclusions from this data.
You’ve obviously used the internet, but do you know anyone who hasn’t?
