ONS Internet Access Survey 2019

The ONS this week published their annual Internet Access – households and individuals report.

The release highlighted a number of trends which we have witnessed over the last few years, not least that household internet access has largely plateaued;

With a high penetration of households and more people using mobile internet than ever before, understandably usage remains extremely high with 87% of adults using the internet daily in 2019. Whilst this includes the traditional demographic trend of younger people tending to use the internet more, 2019 saw the first year in which more than half of adults aged 65 years and over shopped online;

Of course this still leaves a significant minority of people and households who do not have internet access. The reasons for this are relatively well understood in terms of access to connectivity, skills and financial restrictions. However, the overriding factor for the ONS release was attitude/awareness with 61% of households who do not have internet access saying they did not need it.

This ties in with the BSG’s recent research on digital inclusion.