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I missed the release of the 2009 Australian e-Business Report by Sensis late last year and have just gotten around to taking a look to update a blog we posted on the 2008 results.
The consumer section of the report – which is my focus here – is based on a survey, rather than census data, of 1500 people from every age group and every State and Territory around the country.
The highlights are:
- 90% of Australians have a computer at home – although this figure is much higher in the younger age groups
- 85% are internet “enabled” – given margins for error in the survey this more or less suggests stability from the 2008 data
- 13% are still on dial-up service, 59% are on broadband, and 31% use wireless broadband – in other words some 76% of internet users now use broadband services, up 3% on 2008.
The most pleasing result was the evidence that the “digitial divide” continues to close…
While there is still some evidence of a “digital divide”, with only 73 per cent of Australians with a household income of up to $35,000 connected to the internet, compared to 99 per cent of households with an income of more than $85,000, this has lessened in the past year, with an increase of 12 percentage points in the proportion of this lower income group who are now connected.
The graph above illustrates that the variation in use across various groups within the community is becoming a thing of the past with just one exception:
The groups most likely to report below average usage were those aged 65 and above and retirees. For those Australians 65 years and above only 60 per cent reported accessing the internet in the past 12 months. This has actually declined by one percentage point in the past year.
90% or above of all other age groups had internet access, and given the margin for error of the survey, close to 100% of 14-49 year olds appear to have ready access. It is also pleasing to see the high level of use among people who are not in the workforce (89%) compared to full-time (97%) and part-time (94%) workers.
This work by Bang the Table Pty Ltd is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia License.