June 13, 2008 – If you have a website for your garden centre, you probably often wonder who is going online to check out the site and who isn’t. Statistics Canada recently released the results of its 2007 Canadian Internet Use Survey and it reveals that almost three-quarters of Canadians went online last year.
If you have a website for your garden centre, you probably often wonder who is going online to check out the site and who isn’t. Statistics Canada recently released the results of its 2007 Canadian Internet Use Survey and it reveals that almost three-quarters of Canadians 16 and older went online last year.
The survey found that Canadians are making greater and more diverse use of the Internet but a digital divide still persists among various groups.
The report revealed that:
A digital divide
- 65 per cent of residents living in small towns or rural areas accessed the Internet while 76 per cent of those in urban areas were online.
- 91 per cent of those in the $95,000 plus income bracket used the Internet – almost half of this amount (47 per cent) in the less than $24,000 income bracket were online.
- 84 per cent of people with some post-secondary education used the ‘net in 2007, compared with 58 per cent of those with less education.
- 96 per cent of people aged 16 to 24 went online, more than three times the 29 per cent of online seniors aged 65+.
Speedy connections
- 94 per cent of people surveyed used the Internet from home in 2007 while 41 per cent surfed from work, 20 per cent from school and 15 per cent from libraries.
- 88 per cent of people who went online used a high-speed connection.
- 9 in 10 urban home users used high-speed Internet while only 7 in 10 of rural home users did so with a high-speed connection.
Web activities growing
- The most popular web activities were e-mail and browsing while finding government or health information, making travel arrangements, banking, paying bills or ordering goods and services also made the list.
- 20 per cent of home users post images, write blogs or participated in discussion groups. Over 50 per cent of these users were under the age of 30.
- 50 per cent of Canadian Internet users used an instant messenger.
Privacy concerns
- 50 per cent of Canadians were very concerned about online credit card use, 44 per cent about online banking transactions and 37 per cent about online privacy.
- Canadians are becoming more experienced online – 54 per cent have been using the web for five years or more.
- People who were more experienced with the Internet were less concerned about Internet security.
British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario: big web fans
- Internet use rates were about the national average of 73 per cent in B.C., Alberta and Ontario.
- Metropolitan areas boosted the rates in the west. In Calgary, 85 per cent of people aged 16 and older used the internet, 83 per cent in Victoria and 78 per cent in both Vancouver and Edmonton.
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