OTTAWA — More than half of Canadian households were using the Internet in 2000, a jump of almost 10 percentage points from the previous year, a new survey indicates.
That figure should please both the government and business: the former has promised to ensure high-speed Internet access for every community at a cost yet to be determined, and the latter would like to know just how much Canadians are coming to depend on the Internet.
“In 2000, 51 percent of all Canadian households measured had at least one member who was a regular Internet user …” Statistics Canada reported Thursday.
In 1999, 42 percent of households told Statistics Canada they had a family member who regularly used the Internet. The growth in household Internet penetration is pretty much what analysts expected, says Rick Broadhead, an e-commerce and Internet expert.
“I would say we’re exactly where we should be. Some people may look at that number and say that it should be higher; I don’t think so, I think that’s really a healthy number,” he said.
This was the fourth year for the survey, which measures Internet use by households from home, work, school, public libraries and various other locations. It covered almost 34,000 households.
The biggest increase occurred in the proportion of households with at least one regular user who said the home was the most popular place from which to surf the World Wide Web. In 2000, about 40% said home was the most common place of use, compared with 29% in 1999.
Regular household Internet use from work rebounded in 2000 after declining in 1999. About 28% of households had someone who used the Internet at work in 2000, compared with 22% in 1999 and 23% in 1998. About one in five households had someone who regularly used the Internet at school, the third most popular location.
In 2000, just over 6.9 million households, or about three of every five, reported having at least one member who had used the Internet at least once in their lifetime. This was a 22% increase from 1999.
The survey found strong growth in the number of households connected by cable line to the Internet – as opposed to dial-up access by telephone line.
In 2000, an estimated 1.0 million households were connected by cable to the Internet, 155% more than in 1999. In contrast, just over 3.7 million households were linked by telephone to the Internet, a growth rate of 29%.
About 78% of households were connected to the Internet by telephone, and the remainder by cable.
All provinces showed increased Internet penetration rates. In Quebec, 44% of households accessed the Internet from any location in 2000 – the lowest proportion of any province. However, that was an advance from 33% in 1999 – the biggest proportionate growth of any province.
Alberta had the highest proportion in both years. Almost 59% of households in Alberta accessed the Internet from any location in 2000, up from 51% in 1999.
Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Quebec had the highest growth rates for access from home.
Privacy issues are apparently becoming less of a concern for households. About 40% of respondents reported in 2000 that they had no concerns about privacy, compared with about 33% in 1999.
However, that left almost 60% of households reporting that they were concerned or very concerned about privacy on the Internet.
Privacy is defined as concern that personal information is accessible to others on the Internet, such as people finding out about the Web sites that household members visited, or the fear of others reading their e-mail.
More than two-thirds of respondents indicating regular use from home stated they were concerned about Internet content that might be viewed by household members under the age of 18.
Pornography was cited as an example by more than three-quarters of these households. Chatting with strangers and violence were also mentioned as concerns.
