Figures recently released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics indicate 86% of households in Australia have access to the internet - but the difference between the city and the bush remains stark.
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics
ABS says in 2016-17, households located in major cities were more likely to have internet access at home (88%) than households in remote or very remote parts of the nation (77%).
The presence of children under the age of 15 was also was a major factor in whether a household was connected, with 97% of those that did having access to the internet compared with 82% of households that didn't.
Number Of Internet Connected Devices Per Household Increases
An increasing number of devices are being connected to the internet in Australian homes. ABS says the mean number of devices per household increased from 5.8 in 2014-15 to 6.2 in 2016-17. Where households had children aged under 15 years, the mean number of devices used was 7.8, compared with 5.4 devices for households without kids under that age.
The Continuing Rise Of Mobile
Desktop or laptop computers were used by 91% of connected households to access the internet - but this was a drop on 2014-15. Mobile or smart phones were also used by 91% of connected households in 2016-17, an increase on the previous year.
The use of Internet connected TVs in households saw a huge jump, from 27% in 2014-15 to 42% in 2016-17.
Young 'Uns Outpace Seniors As Users
People aged 15 to 17 years were the highest proportion of internet users (98%) in 2016-17 whereas the older age group (65 years and over) represented the lowest proportion (55%).
Most Popular Activities
The three most popular activities carried out online were entertainment, social networking and banking. All of these sat at 80% and all saw increases in 2016-17.
The full ABS report, "8146.0 - Household Use of Information Technology, Australia, 2016-17" can be viewed here. The results were collected via the Multipurpose Household Survey (MPHS), which is conducted each financial year throughout Australia from July to June. In the most recently completed survey, a representative from 14,035 private dwellings (72% of the 19,632 private dwellings that remained in the survey after sample loss) fully responded to the questions on the household use of information technology.
If you're into Australian internet related statistics, you may want to read our post from last week, which provides some facts and figures on broadband in Australia.
