Over Three-Quarters of All U.S. Adults – An Estimated 172 million – Now Go Online

According to the latest Harris Poll, the number of adults who are online at home, in the office, at school, library or other locations continues to grow at a steady rate. In the past year, the number of online users has reached an estimated 172 million, a five percent increase.

In research among 2,032 U.S. adults surveyed by telephone in February and April 2006, Harris Interactive^® found that 77 percent of adults are now online, up from 74 percent in February/April 2005, 66 percent in the spring of 2002, 64 percent in 2001 and 57 percent in spring of 2000. When Harris Interactive first began to track Internet use in 1995, only nine percent of adults reported they went online.

The proportion of adults who are now online at home has risen to 70 percent, up from 66 percent in 2005 and 55 percent in the spring of 2002. The percentage of those online at work has not really changed (35% now, 36% in 2005) yet is still up from 30 percent in the spring of 2002. Adults who are online at a location other than their home or work also remains steady at 22 percent (21% in 2005, 19% in the spring of 2002).

As Internet penetration rises, the demographic profile of Internet users continues to look more like that of the nation as a whole. It is still true that more young than older people, and more affluent than low-income people, are online. However, eight percent of those online are now age 65 or over (compared to 16% of all adults who are 65 or over), 39 percent of those online (compared to 47% of all adults) did not go to college and 14 percent have incomes of less than $25,000 (compared to 19% of all adults).

"At home, do you personally use a computer to access the Internet/World Wide Web?"

"At work, do you personally use a computer to access the Internet/World Wide Web?"

"At another location, do you personally use a computer to access the Internet/World Wide Web?"

"Excluding email, how many hours per week, on average, do you typically spend on the Internet or World Wide Web?"

Base: All adults

Note: N/A means "not asked"

"Do you personally use a computer at home, work or another location?"

"At home, do you personally use a computer to access the Internet/World Wide Web?"

"At work, do you personally use a computer to access the Internet/World Wide Web?"

"At another location, do you personally use a computer to access the Internet/World Wide Web?"

Base: All adults

Notes:

1. All samples of 2,000 or more adults, conducted by telephone.

2. "Are Online" includes all adults who use Internet from home, office, school, library or other location.

* Estimated from other sources.

"At home, do you personally use a computer to Access the Internet/World Wide Web?"

"At work, do you personally use a computer to access the Internet/World Wide Web?"

"At another location, do you personally use a computer to access the Internet/World Wide Web?"

Base: All adults

*Based on data from the March 2005 U.S. Current Population Survey

"At home, do you personally use a computer to Access the Internet/World Wide Web?"

"At work, do you personally use a computer to access the Internet/World Wide Web?"

"At another location, do you personally use a computer to access the Internet/World Wide Web?"

Base: All adults

*Based on July 2005 U.S. Census estimate released January 2006 (223,000,000 total adults aged 18 or over)

The Harris Poll^® was conducted by telephone within the United States between February 2006 (February 7 and 13, 2006) and April 2006 (April 4 and 10, 2006) among 2,032 adults (aged 18 and over). Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region, number of adults in the household, number of phone lines in the household were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population.

All surveys are subject to several sources of error. These include: sampling error (because only a sample of a population is interviewed); measurement error due to question wording and/or question order, deliberately or unintentionally inaccurate responses, nonresponse (including refusals), interviewer effects (when live interviewers are used) and weighting.

With one exception (sampling error) the magnitude of the errors that result cannot be estimated. There is, therefore, no way to calculate a finite "margin of error" for any survey and the use of these words should be avoided.

With pure probability samples, with 100 percent response rates, it is possible to calculate the probability that the sampling error (but not other sources of error) is not greater than some number. With a pure probability sample of 2,032 adults one could say with a 95 percent probability that the overall results have a sampling error of +/- 2 percentage points. However that does not take other sources of error into account.

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