ONS reports on internet users in 2016

23 May 2016

The annual statistical bulletin Internet users in the UK: 2016 can be downloaded in PDF format but the main points in summary report are that:

  • 87.9% of adults in the UK (45.9 million) had recently (in the last 3 months) used the internet, compared with 86.2% in 2015.
  • 10.2% (5.3 million) had never used the internet compared with 11.4% in 2015.
  • Almost all adults aged 16 to 24 years were recent internet users (99.2%), in contrast with 38.7% of adults aged 75 years and over.
  • 89.4% of men (22.8 million) and 86.4% of women (23.1 million) were recent internet users, up from 87.9% and 84.6% in 2015.
  • Women aged 75 and over, had seen the largest rise in recent internet use, up 169.0% from 2011; however, still less than a third (32.6%) were recent users in 2016.
  • 25.0% of disabled adults had never used the internet in 2016, down from 27.4% in 2015.
  • Of the NUTS* 1 regions, Northern Ireland had seen the largest increase (13.2 percentage points) in recent internet use since 2011; however, in 2016 it was still the region with the lowest recent usage (82.0%).
  • Inactive adults who had never used the internet or who used the internet more than 3 months ago, has decreased by 13.3 percentage points since 2011.

* NUTS (Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics) was created by the European Office for Statistics (Eurostat) as a single hierarchical classification of spatial units used for statistical production across the European Union (EU).

The ONS are constantly aiming to improve this release and its associated commentary and would welcome any feedback that readers might have. Contact can be made by telephone to Cecil Prescott on 01633 456767 or via email at [email protected].

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