16% of British Have Never Used Internet

A report from the Office for National Statistics has revealed that 8,000,000 adults in the United Kingdom had never used the web in the 4th quarter of 2011.

Even considering that 42 million adults in the United Kingdom had used the Internet at some time (which makes up 83.5% of the adult population), another 8.2 million people who had never gone online make up 16.5% of the country’s adult population. According to the survey, another 224,000 people began using the Internet since the 3rd quarter of 2011.

British citizens who were less likely to go on the Internet included over 65s, the widowed, and the disabled, says the recent report. At the same time, the youngest generation surveyed, 16 to 24-year-olds, appeared to be the biggest users of the Internet at an outstanding 98.7% having gone on the Internet. For unknown reason, men were a bit more likely to go on the web than women: 86% of the men used the Internet compared to 81% of women.

Meanwhile, a little over 8% of people earning less than £200 a week had never used the web. The survey points out that the more people are paid weekly, the more likely they were to go on the Internet, with absolutely 0 non-users for those in the highest pay band of £800 - £900 per week.

It seems that the government is still keen to push the Internet use throughout the United Kingdom. Indeed, the UK authorities were noticed to be rolling out a number of initiatives to boost the web in the country. For instance, Gargantuan supermarket Tesco is currently making attempts to get more consumers on the Internet while filling its own pockets. The supermarket has simply turned Internet service provider and is currently offering a package for only £2.50 a month, thus undercutting another cheap Internet service provider TalkTalk.

In response, one of the country’s largest ISPs said that TalkTalk still remained the country’s best value home phone and broadband provider. The company pointed out (mostly for its current users, perhaps) that the customers taking Essentials from TalkTalk along with their Value Line Rental could save £42 a year in comparison to the supermarket’s “evening and weekend” package. Besides, TalkTalk’s Plus customers taking Value Line Rental could save £26.25 annually compared with the Tesco’s “anytime".