High-speed web access lags behind

OLDER people are the fastest-growing internet user group, but nearly one third of Irish people who go online every day do not have broadband access.

A study on technology use also reveals that travel, holidays, concert tickets, clothes and books are the most commonly bought items online, although more men than women use the web to buy electronics, films and music.

The Central Statistic Office survey of about 5,800 people over the first three months of 2011, shows 81% of all households have access to a computer.

The vast majority — 78% — have home internet access, up from two thirds in 2009 and just 57% in 2007.

Although half of those without a computer or internet access said they did not need them, significant numbers cited lack of skills or confidence as factors.

Among the 55% of people surveyed who go online daily, 68% had a broadband connection, up from the 62% who had a high-speed service in 2007.

The most frequent internet usage is among those aged 16 to 29, with more than 75% reporting online activity almost every day or more often, rising to 91% when including those who go online at least once a week.

While just over one third of 60 to 74-year-olds access the internet once a week or more, this is twice the proportion who did so in 2007 and the proportion who are online daily in the same age group more than doubled to 21% in the last four years.

The proportion of adults who have shopped online in the last year rose from one in three in 2007 to 43% this year, but it is more common among people in Dublin and the west than the border and south-east.

While flights and travel, holiday accommodation, and tickets for events were the most common buys, gender differences emerged on other web transactions.

Almost 20% of men have bought electronic items in the past year — twice the number of women. But 21% of women have gone online to buy clothes or sports goods compared to just 14% of men.

Male adults were also twice as likely to have bought computer hardware, video games or software.

The CSO found 6.5% of men — but just 1.6% of women — used the internet for TV, phone and broadband subscriptions or other telecommunications services in the year to early 2011.

Although the proportion of Irish homes with internet access is slightly higher than the EU average, the 63% who use it at least once a week compares poorly to the 80% rate across the EU.