Years on Internet
Notes:
- Results from this category were used to split respondents into categories of Novice, Intermediate, and Expert users, which were used to analyze other data from this survey. Novices were evenly split - half started on the Internet in the past 6 months and half in the past 6-12 months. Most experts (as we have defined them) have been on the Internet for 4-6 years (72.33%), with the rest being on for 7 years or more.
- The continued migration of users to the Internet is still seen in the Eighth Survey, where 36.62% of the users have gone online in the past year. This percentage is higher than for the previous survey (25.34%), but is similar to results from the 6th survey (36.11%). About 7% of respondents have been on the Internet over 7 years, compared to 10% in the Seventh Survey and 7.14% in the Sixth Survey. This longitudinal data shows the clear bump of when the Internet began to gain wide acceptance in 1994 and 1996.
- Respondents from the US are more likely to have started on the Internet within the past year, while respondents from Europe are more likely to have been on for 1-3 years.
- Female users still are flocking to the Internet, with 42.64% having gone online in the past year, compared to 32.86% for males. Men are more likely than women to have been on the internet for greater than 4 years.
- Use of the internet by the 50+ age group has increased over the previous survey, with 52.65% having gone online in the past year compared to 33.72% for the 7th survey, 48.26% in the Sixth Survey and 55.86% in the Fifth Survey. The 26-50 group have the largest percentage of people on the internet for 7+ years, while the 19-25 group have the largest percentage on the Internet for 1-6 years.
- WebTV respondents differed from other respondents for this question. For a discussion of these differences, see WebTV Respondents.
Table of Data for All Categories
| Years on Internet |
All |
Male |
Female |
USA |
Europe |
10-18 |
19-25 |
26-50 |
50+ |
Novice |
Intermediate |
Expert |
| Under 6 mo |
1857.00 18.37% |
993.00 15.97% |
864.00 22.21% |
1670.00 19.62% |
65.00 9.64% |
158.00 25.61% |
204.00 10.66% |
974.00 17.03% |
361.00 24.85% |
1857.00 50.16% |
0.00 0.00% |
0.00 0.00% |
| 6-12 mo |
1845.00 18.25% |
1050.00 16.89% |
795.00 20.43% |
1673.00 19.66% |
61.00 9.05% |
116.00 18.80% |
201.00 10.50% |
1035.00 18.10% |
404.00 27.80% |
1845.00 49.84% |
0.00 0.00% |
0.00 0.00% |
| 1-3 yr |
3865.00 38.24% |
2371.00 38.14% |
1494.00 38.40% |
3083.00 36.23% |
340.00 50.45% |
265.00 42.95% |
886.00 46.29% |
2138.00 37.38% |
474.00 32.62% |
0.00 0.00% |
3865.00 100.00% |
0.00 0.00% |
| 4-6 yr |
1838.00 18.18% |
1259.00 20.25% |
579.00 14.88% |
1489.00 17.50% |
159.00 23.59% |
68.00 11.02% |
548.00 28.63% |
1036.00 18.12% |
154.00 10.60% |
0.00 0.00% |
0.00 0.00% |
1838.00 72.33% |
| Over 7 yr |
703.00 6.95% |
544.00 8.75% |
159.00 4.09% |
595.00 6.99% |
49.00 7.27% |
10.00 1.62% |
75.00 3.92% |
536.00 9.37% |
60.00 4.13% |
0.00 0.00% |
0.00 0.00% |
703.00 27.67% |
For more information or to submit comments:
send e-mail to www-survey@cc.gatech.edu.
GVU's WWW Surveying Team
Graphics, Visualization, & Usability Center
College of Computing
Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, GA 30332-0280