Presented by Robert Clark MP		www.robertclark.net

Growth in household use of IT

In 1998, 16% of Australian households (1.1 million) had home Internet access, an increase of nearly 280% over the 1996 figure of 286,000 Internet households. The proportion for Victoria was around 15% of households.

In the period, 38% of Australian households (2.6 million) had a computer in frequent use. In Victoria the figure was 40%, the second highest in Australia (after ACT at 57%).

Nearly 5.7 million Australians aged five years and over used a home computer frequently (34% of the total population). The proportion of frequent home computer users in Victoria was 35%.

Australia-wide, more than 8 million adults used a computer from any site in 1998 and more than 4 million adults accessed the Internet. Nearly 350,000 adults used the Internet to purchase or order goods. Of these, 81% paid for their orders or purchases online and 68% reported purchases or orders from overseas sources.

Nearly 300,000 employed adults were able to access their employer’s computers from home through a modem and had an agreement with their employer to work from home.

(News Release, Australian Bureau of Statistics, May 27 1999)