Internet Use in Canada

An estimated 7.9 million (64%) of the 12.3 million Canadian households had at least one member who used the Internet regularly in 2003, either from home, work, school, a public library or another location. This was a 5% increase from 2002, but well below the annual gains of 19% and 24% observed in 2000 and 2001. Households with high income, members active in the labour force, those with children still living at home and people with higher levels of education have been in the forefront of Internet adoption.

Internet use was highest at home. About 6.7 million households had at least one member who regularly used the Internet from home, a gain of 7% since 2002. These households accounted for nearly 55% of the total, up from 51% in 2002.

Lower income households are making strides in logging on. Nearly 45% (1.3 million) of the households with income between $24,001 and $43,999, had someone who used the Internet from home in 2003, which is up 13% from 2002. This group of households had the highest growth in connections from home and work, as well as the combination of various locations. In contrast, the proportion of households regularly using the Internet from home remained relatively unchanged for the lowest income quartile.

Canadian households spent just over $3.0 billion shopping on the Internet on everything from airplane tickets to books, according to the 2003 Household Internet Use Survey.

An estimated 3.2 million Canadian households actively participated in e-commerce in 2003, up from 2.8 million the year before. These households accessed the Internet from various locations, not just home. In total, they placed 21.1 million orders, up from 16.6 million the previous year.

The $3.0 billion in orders placed over the Internet represents a 25% increase from $2.4 billion spent online in 2002. This growth rate far exceeds the 5% increase in the number of households that accessed the Internet from any location in 2003.

The Household Internet Use Survey (HIUS) will not be conducted for the 2004 reference year and is targeted to be replaced by an individual level survey for reference year 2005.

See The Daily September 23, 2004

See The Daily July 8, 2004