Almost 14 Million Senior Citizens Now Online

May 28, 2006 – A Harris Poll released last week shows there are now 172 million American adults online and almost 14 million of those are senior citizens age 65 and older. Seniors online are eight percent of the total, which has increased by five percent since last year.

According to the latest Harris Poll, the number of adults who are online at home, in the office, at school, library or other locations continues to grow at a steady rate, according to research among 2,032 U.S. adults surveyed by telephone in February and April 2006.

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Harris Interactive found that 77 percent of adults are now online, up from 74 percent in February/April 2005, 66 percent in the spring of 2002, 64 percent in 2001 and 57 percent in spring of 2000. When Harris Interactive first began to track Internet use in 1995, only nine percent of adults reported they went online.

For a more detailed look see the table below.

As Internet penetration rises, the demographic profile of Internet users continues to look more like that of the nation as a whole. It is still true that more young than older people, and more affluent than low-income people, are online.

However, eight percent of those online are now age 65 or over (compared to 16% of all adults who are 65 or over).

In other demographic splints the survey found 39 percent of those online (compared to 47% of all adults) did not go to college and 14 percent have incomes of less than $25,000 (compared to 19% of all adults).

Internet access increases at home and at work

The proportion of adults who are now online at home has risen to 70 percent, up from 66 percent in 2005 and 55 percent in the spring of 2002. The percentage of those online at work has not really changed (35% now, 36% in 2005) yet is still up from 30 percent in the spring of 2002. Adults who are online at a location other than their home or work also remains steady at 22 percent (21% in 2005, 19% in the spring of 2002).

Table 1 - Online From Home, Work or Other Location: Trends 1995–2006

● "At home, do you personally use a computer to access the Internet/World Wide Web?"
●"At work, do you personally use a computer to access the Internet/World Wide Web?"
●"At another location, do you personally use a computer to access the Internet/World Wide Web?"
●"Excluding email, how many hours per week, on average, do you typically spend on the Internet or World Wide Web?"

Base: All adults

	Online Adults
	Total	Online at Home	Online at Work	Online at Other Location	Average (Mean) Hours Per Week Spent Online
	%	%	%	%
2006
February/April	77	70	35	22	9
2005
February/April	74	66	36	21	9
2004
June/ August	73	65	34	17	8
2003
October/December	69	61	31	16	9
2002
November/December	67	57	28	18	7
February/March	66	55	30	19	8
2001
September/October	64	52	28	19	7
March/April	64	53	27	20	7
2000
October/November	63	49	29	17	7
April/May	57	45	24	15	7
1999
December	56	46	N/A	N/A	7
1998
January/February	35	22	22	N/A	N/A
1997
May/June	30	16	18	N/A	N/A
1996
June/September	19	16	16	N/A	N/A
1995
September/November	9	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

Note: N/A means "not asked"

Table 2 - PC and Internet Use: Trends 1995-2006

●"Do you personally use a computer at home, work or another location?"
●"At home, do you personally use a computer to access the Internet/World Wide Web?"
●"At work, do you personally use a computer to access the Internet/World Wide Web?"
●"At another location, do you personally use a computer to access the Internet/World Wide Web?"

Base: All adults

	Proportion of All Adults (from work, home, school or other location)		Percent of Computer Users Who Are Online
	Use PC	Are Online	Percent of Computer Users Who Are Online
	%	%	%
2006
February/April	81	77	95
2005
February/April	79	74	94
2004
June/ August	78	73	93
2003
October/December	75	69	92
2002
November/December	74	67	92
February/March	74	66	90
2001
September/October	73	64	88
March/April	72	64	89
2000
October/November	74	63	85
April/May	69	57	83
1999
December	69	56	81
June/July	65	48	74
January/February	63	41	65
1998
January/February	63	35	56
1997
May/June	61	30	49
1996
June/September	54	19	35
1995
September/November	50*	9	18

Notes:

1. All samples of 2,000 or more adults, conducted by telephone.
2. "Are Online" includes all adults who use Internet from home, office, school, library or other location.

* Estimated from other sources.

Table 3 - Profile of Online Population

(February-April 2006)

● "At home, do you personally use a computer to Access the Internet/World Wide Web?"
● "At work, do you personally use a computer to access the Internet/World Wide Web?"
● "At another location, do you personally use a computer to access the Internet/World Wide Web?"

Base: All adults

	Total U.S. Adult Online Population	Total U.S. Adult Population*	Percentage Point Difference
	%	%	%
AGE
18 – 29	24	21	+3
30 – 39	22	18	+4
40 – 49	22	20	+2
50+	30	37	-7
50 – 64	22	22	0
65+	8	16	-8
SEX
Men	49	48	+1
Women	51	52	-1
RACE/ETHNICITY
White	76	75	+1
Black	10	11	-1
Hispanic	13	13	0
EDUCATION
High school or less	39	47	-8
Some college	30	27	+3
College graduate (or postgraduate)	30	25	+5
HOUSEHOLD INCOME
Less than $25,000	14	19	-5
$25,000 to less than $50,000	23	24	-1
$50,000 and over	52	44	+8

*Based on data from the March 2005 U.S. Current Population Survey

Table 4 - Estimated Numbers of Adults Who Are Online (In Millions)

Base: All adults

	In Millions
2006
February/April	172*
2005
February/April	163
2004
June/August	156
2003
October/December	146
2002
November/December	140
February/March	137
2001
September/October	127
March/April	126
2000
October/November	121
April/May	114
1999
December	113
1998
January/February	70
1997
May/June	59
1996
June/September	33
1995
September/November	17.5

*Based on July 2005 U.S. Census estimate released January 2006 (223,000,000 total adults aged 18 or over)

Methodology

The Harris Poll^® was conducted by telephone within the United States between February 2006 (February 7 and 13, 2006) and April 2006 (April 4 and 10, 2006) among 2,032 adults (aged 18 and over). Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region, number of adults in the household, number of phone lines in the household were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population.

All surveys are subject to several sources of error. These include: sampling error (because only a sample of a population is interviewed); measurement error due to question wording and/or question order, deliberately or unintentionally inaccurate responses, nonresponse (including refusals), interviewer effects (when live interviewers are used) and weighting.

With one exception (sampling error) the magnitude of the errors that result cannot be estimated. There is, therefore, no way to calculate a finite "margin of error" for any survey and the use of these words should be avoided.

With pure probability samples, with 100 percent response rates, it is possible to calculate the probability that the sampling error (but not other sources of error) is not greater than some number. With a pure probability sample of 2,032 adults one could say with a 95 percent probability that the overall results have a sampling error of +/- 2 percentage points. However that does not take other sources of error into account.

These statements conform to the principles of disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.

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