• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, November 18, 2001

Virtually No Growth in Internet Penetration

Humphrey Taylor, Chairman of The Harris Poll®, HarrisInteractive, released a new Harris Poll saying that the 127 million adults online is the first time since the rapid growth of Internet use began in 1994 that there has not been a sizeable increase in Internet penetration over a twelve month period.

The October 2001 survey reports that the proportion of all adults who are online at work, at home or from any other location such as school, library or cyber café has remained virtually unchanged at 64% for the last 12 months. All adults online was 9% in 1995, 30% by 1997, 56% by 1998, 63% by this time last year and 64% this year.

52% are online from home, a marginal increase from 49% this time last year. 28% are online at work, and 19% are online at some other location such as a school, library or cyber café. 88% of all those who use a computer are online, and 12% are not.

Harris says that the rapid growth of Internet penetration appears to have stopped at, or soon after, the crash of the Internet stocks on the NASDAQ. He concludes that the weakening economy could inhibit growth of Internet penetration over the next year or two, and only history will tell us if it’s a pause or a plateau.

Some of the details released include:

Profile of U.S. Online Population

  +------------------------+--------+--------+  |                        | Online |  All   |  |                        | Adults | Adults |  +------------------------+--------+--------+  |
Age                    |        |        |  | 18 to 29               |  28%   |  22%   |  | 30 to 39               |  23%   |  22%   |  | 40 to 49               |  23%   |  20%   |  | 50 to 64
|  18%   |  18%   |  | 65+                    |   7%   |  16%   |  |                        |        |        |  | Gender                 |        |        |  | Men                    |  51%   |  48%
|  | Women                  |  49%   |  52%   |  |                        |        |        |  | Race/Ethnicity         |        |        |  | White                  |  76%   |  76%   |  | Black
|  10%   |  12%   |  | Hispanic               |  10%   |  10%   |  |                        |        |        |  | Education              |        |        |  | High school or less    |  38%   |  52%
|  | Some College           |  30%   |  26%   |  | College grad/post grad |  32%   |  22%   |  |                        |        |        |  | Household Income       |        |        |  | $25,000 or
less        |  19%   |  25%   |  | $25,001 to $50,000     |  23%   |  29%   |  | $50,001 and over       |  45%   |  32%   |  +------------------------+--------+--------+  

Source: Harris Interactive

You can get more details here.