The Daily. Monday, December 4, 2000
Canadians are not only logging on to the Internet in growing numbers, they are using it in more diverse ways, particularly for conducting commerce.
In 1999, about 42% of all households, an estimated 4.9 million, had at least one family member who used the Internet regularly from home, work, school or other locations, up from 29% two years earlier.
An estimated 3.4 million households had a member who used the Internet from home, accounting for 29% of all households. This proportion, which has almost doubled from 16% in 1997, surpassed the share of households with someone who used the Internet from work for the first time.
Canadians were putting their Internet connection to much more than just recreational use. Of the households with someone who used the Internet from home, 19% used it to buy goods and services, more than double the 9% reported two years earlier. The Internet has clearly become a viable transaction medium for commerce.
Fifty-four percent used the Internet from home to seek medical and health information, and 28% used it for electronic banking, up from 20% in 1997.
The connected households that do not use e-mail from home have become a rarity. More than nine-tenths of home-use households used e-mail last year.
One in five households used their home Internet connection for self-employment purposes in 1999, while one in four did so for employer-related reasons.
Internet use has increased for all age groups. But the growth in Internet use and home connections has been fastest in households headed by seniors 65 and over, followed by those headed by individuals aged 55 to 64.
Nonetheless, only one-tenth of households headed by seniors and one-third of those headed by someone aged 55 to 64 used the Internet regularly, compared with more than half of younger households.
Fifty-nine percent of single-family households with unmarried children under 18 were wired to the Internet in 1999, the highest proportion of all family groups. This was much higher than the rate for single-family households without such children (39%). Not surprisingly, this is because households with children have a much higher rate of Internet use from school.
Four of every 10 households with children were connected from home, nearly twice the proportion only two years before.
Internet use increases directly with education and income levels in the household. Households in which the head had a university degree were almost twice as likely to use the Internet than those headed by high school graduates, and four times as likely as those in which the head did not complete high school.
The proportion of households using the Internet increased for all education categories in 1999. However, these gains were strongest in households in the lowest education category.
Similarly, the highest income groups were five times as likely to be Internet users as were the lowest income groups. While Internet use has been rising for all income groups, the growth in the penetration rate has been greater in lower-income households than in higher-income households.
|
Seventy-one percent of households in the top income quartile (the 25% of households with the highest incomes) used the Internet, compared with 19% in the bottom quartile.
Fifty-four percent of households in the top quartile were hooked up at home, compared with 11% of those in the bottom quartile. However, the proportion in the bottom quartile was almost twice the level of 6% two years earlier.
The three provinces with the highest average incomes - Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia - had the highest rate of household Internet use, and were the only provinces above the national average of 42%.
Overall penetration rates increased in every province in 1999. Quebec improved its position considerably relative to the other provinces. Thirty-three percent of all Quebec households used the Internet in 1999, compared with little more than 26% the year before.
Newfoundland's home and work penetration rates remain the lowest of any province.
Among Census Metropolitan Areas, 61% of households in Ottawa were connected to the Internet from any location, highest among the 15 largest CMAs, followed by 60% in Calgary. The lowest rates were in Windsor and Québec, both at 34%.
Available on CANSIM: matrices 7944-7948.
The report Plugging in: The increase in household Internet use continues in 1999 (56F0004MIE) is now available free on Statistics Canada's Web site (www.statcan.ca). From the Products and services page, choose Free publications.
For data or general information, contact Marc Nadeau (951-2183, marc.nadeau@statcan.gc.ca). For more information, or to enquire about concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Greg Peterson (613-951-3592, greg.peterson@statcan.gc.ca), Science, Innovation and Electronic Information Division.