Canada’s connectivity to the Internet is levelling off, a new study suggests.
In 2002, an estimated 7.5 million households had at least one member who used the Internet regularly, up only four per cent from 2001, according to Statistics Canada’s Household Internet Use Survey (HIUS). This was far below the gains of 19 per cent in 2001 and 24 per cent the year before.
Households with high income, members active in the labour force, those with children still living at home and people with higher levels of education have been in the forefront of Internet adoption. Because the majority of these households have already hooked up to the Internet, the capacity to sustain high growth rates is much reduced, says Statistics Canada.
At 54 per cent, Alberta’s rate of Internet use from home was higher than the national average of 51 per cent.
Children are still a key factor in household Internet usage. Single-family households with unmarried children under the age of 18 had the highest rate of Internet use in any location last year, about 81 per cent. This proportion was double the level of 38 per cent in 1997.
Almost one-fifth of regular home use was by employees taking advantage of the Internet to work scheduled hours at home. This was relatively unchanged from 2001. About one million households reported in 2002 that at least one member regularly used the Internet at home for purposes of self-employment, unchanged from 2001.
Although households with the highest income still have the highest penetration rates, Internet use continues to make gains among households in the lowest income level.
In 2002, 78 per cent of households in the highest income group had a member who used the Internet from home. Five years earlier, 33 per cent of households with the highest incomes used the Internet from home.
In contrast, among the households in the lowest income group, only 25 per cent had a member who used the Internet from home. However, this proportion had increased five times from only five per cent in 1997.
HIUS data showed continued growth in home cable connections. In 2002, an estimated 2.2 million households, or 35 per cent, reported regular Internet access through a cable connection. This was up from 1.75 million, or 26 per cent, in 2001. The majority of the remaining households (almost four million) connected using a telephone line.
Canadians still use the Internet mostly for e-mail and general browsing. However, growing numbers of households rely on the Internet to obtain information on their health, to research and make travel arrangements, and to obtain information from various levels of government.
Almost two-thirds (64 per cent) of homes had at least one member in 2002 who used the Internet to search for medical or health-related information, up from about 43 per cent in 1998. After sending e-mail and browsing, this was the third most popular activity.
Specialized uses such as electronic banking are also on the rise. Just over one-half of households using the Internet at home had someone who accessed online banking services, more than double the proportion of 23 per cent in 1998. This might indicate consumers are becoming more confident in web security, said Statistics Canada.
In 2002, about 3.8 million Canadian households had never used the Internet. Most of the households in this group (85 per cent) were either families without children or one-person households. Many of these non-users earned below- average household income, with 47 per cent in the lowest income group.
Among households with a member who had never used the Internet, about 477,000 said they had a computer at home. More than four in 10 indicated they had no need of the Internet, or did not find it useful.
About 16 per cent said the Internet cost too much, while just over 10 per cent said their computer was too old or it was broken.
HIUS data gathered in January 2003 covered household Internet use in the 2002 calendar year.
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