Nearly half of UK homes without Internet access. What do they do all day?

The Office of National Statistics has surprised me today – and that doesn’t happen very often.

It’s come up with a statistic (that’s not the surprise): 43% of UK households don’t have any access to the Internet.

Of these:

• About a quarter
  said they didn’t need the Net (who doesn’t need the Net?)
• 24% said they lacked the skills to use the Internet.
• 11% said access costs were too high.
• 14% said equipment costs were too high.

The 57% with Net access included people with mobile phones able to
access online services. Interestingly the ONS said that mobiles were
seen as a cheaper way to get online. I suppose with the increase in
mobile Net services and the relatively low cost of equipment (even if
ongoing charges aren’t lower) this could be true.

Of the 57%, three-quarters connect via broadband, compared to around half in June 2005.

And not surprisingly, age also played a factor. Only 10% of 16-24s had
never used the Net, compared to 82% of the over 65s. Mind you, that’ll
probably shift as the younger techie generations get older.