More than 8.4m Britons have never used web

More than 8.4 million Britons have still never been online despite a sharp fall in non-internet users, according to official figures. 

By Christopher Williams, Technology Correspondent.

In the three months to the end of September the number of adults who had never been online fell by 299,000, the office of National Statistics said, compared to a fall of just 12,000 in the previous quarter.

It means that 8.43 million adults, or 16.8 per cent of the adult population, have never been online.

The government aims to get everyone online by 2015. Its “digital champion”, the internet entrepreneur Martha Lane Fox, is also running the Race Online campaign to create 1.9 million new internet users by the end of 2012.

The ONS’ quarterly Labour Force Survey showed that the number of non-internet users decreased in all age groups, except the youngest, which showed a small increase that was not statistically significant. Some 98.6 per cent of 16 to 24-year-olds said they had used the internet.

The biggest fall, of 164,000, was among over-75-year-olds. However, the statistics did not indicate how much of this was caused by people going online for the first time and how much by the older members of the age group passing away. Some 72.4 per cent of over-75s have still never used the internet.

The survey showed that more than half those who have never been online are disabled. Some 36.3 per cent of disabled adults, or 4.25 million, have not used the internet. For able-bodied adults the comparable figure is just 10.8 per cent.


"A growing gap exists between those who are online and those who are not, as the internet becomes more of an essential utility for consumers," said Jonathan Stearn of Consumer Focus.


"The Government must provide even more targeted support to those who lose out the most. That means tackling real barriers over cost, access, security fears, and computer skills."