Only a third of older people living alone have internet access

Just over a third (37 per cent) of one person households over state pension age had Internet access in 2008, according to a report published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

This compares with 79 per cent of one person households under the state pension age.

Of those households with dependent children, Internet access was lower for lone parent households than couple households (63 per cent and 88 per cent respectively).

Internet access for all types of households in the UK rose between 2000/01 and 2008. The largest increase was for lone parent households with an increase of 40 percentage points. However, the gap between lone parent and couple parent households remains.

There are many reasons why households do not have an Internet connection. Data from the 2010 Opinions Survey show that the most common reason reported was that households ‘don't need the Internet' with close to four in ten households (39 per cent) without Internet access reporting this. However, some households reported the high costs of equipment or access as reasons for lack of Internet access (18 per cent and 15 per cent respectively).

As well as being used by individuals in the home the Internet is also used for business and government.

In July 2010 the value of Internet retail sales was 8.0 per cent of total retails sales.

2009 in the UK 43 per cent of people who had used the Internet in the last three months had used it to interact with public authorities.