By Ben Carpenter, Race Online 2012 Special Adviser
The number of UK adults never to have used the internet has fallen by 224,000 to just over 8.2m adults (16.3%), according to the Office for National Statistics’ final quarterly report, released today. Fewer people are offline across all age groups and the total 2011 change now totals 535,000 fewer adults never online.
It’s good to see an improvement in offline figures but they also reinforce the need for the UK to prioritise the education and accessibility of IT skills for its citizens. There is still a long way to go if the UK is to become the world’s most digitally capable nation.
The figures suggest progress primarily among harder-to-reach groups, those supported by service delivery specialists like UK online centres, unionlearn, Citizens Online, Age UK, libraries, Digital Unite and NIACE.
Nearly 80% of the total decrease occurred among those over 55, and most dramatically with over 75s, where 55,000 fewer are offline. But, worryingly, this quarter’s decrease in this age bracket is almost exclusively among men (-4%), with no progress made for women over 75, 2 million of whom are still offline (nearly a quarter of all offline adults).
Across all age groups, twice as many men have got online as women this quarter: 152,000 to 72,000. This discrepancy is not reflected in the previous two quarters’ estimates, but is one to beware of it in case it does become a trend.
67% of the total offline population remains over 65, and much needs to be done to help these groups, particularly as older people are best placed to benefit from being online, with mobility and loneliness more likely to be issues.
The figures suggest a strong positive trend of people with a disability getting online, with a 1.84% decrease in this area. Race Online 2012 continues to work with the eAccessibility Forum, AbilityNet, Headstar and the One Voice coalition on exciting new work to further develop the empowering influence that digital technology can have on the lives of people with disabilities.
We look forward to the next quarter’s data, where accessibility as a barrier to internet use will be more effectively measured, asking how inaccessible technology, rather than registered disability, creates barriers to getting online.
The ONS estimates also suggest that those employed on low incomes are being increasingly left behind, with those offline and earning less than £300 a week going up by 58,000 adults, against a small decrease among those earning £300 a week and above.
Geographically, progress has been reasonably evenly spread, without the peaks seen in the previous quarter (Q3). The greatest decrease in offliners was in Yorkshire and the East Midlands (both nearly 1%), but none have seen progress as significant as during Q3 in Merseyside, when a 6.2% drop was measured.
Race Online 2012 continues to work hard with partners and beyond, to see further improvement.