70 per cent of UK households now online

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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 per cent 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 per cent 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 per cent using it everyday.

The ONS found that the most popular use of the internet was for email.

“The most popular activity of recent internet users was sending and receiving emails, at 90 per cent,” said the report.

Increases in the popularity and use of social networking sites were shown in the findings with an increase of 24 per cent to 40 per cent of users who said they’d uploaded self created content.

It also reported an eight per cent 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 per cent) 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, claimed the report.

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