As of August, Nielsen NetRatings   www.netratings.com  estimates that 173 million U.S. individuals (all ages), or 60% of the U.S. population, now have access to the Internet, an increase of 39 million since June 2000, but only up 9 million year-to-date. In August, 113 million (65%) actually used their Internet access (see Table 13, below).

Table 1

U.S. Web User Trend
millions who have ever used the Web

Sources: 1999-2001: Nielsen NetRatings, 10/01; Total Universe = number
of users of all ages (age 2+) with Internet access at home or work;
Active Users = subset of Total Universe, those who use the Internet that month; estimated from panel of 62,000 U.S. at-home users, and 8,000
U.S. at-work users
1996-1998: age 16+ users from IntelliQuest, www.intelliquest.com ;

1995: CommerceNet/Nielsen

(1) Feb. ‘00 total; (2) Nov. ‘99 total; (3) Jan. ‘99 total; (4) Nov. ‘97 total

Mediamark Research (MRI), tracking adult usage only (age 18+), found 101 million active users (used during last 30 days), in its Spring 2001 research. That amounts to 50% of all adults. Mediamark estimated that 133 million adults have Internet access, or 66% of the adult population. Among active users, 83% logged in from home and 48% did so from work.

Table 2

U.S. Internet Access by Location

millions of adult (18+) users

Source: MRI CyberStats (Mediamark Research), 10/01

(1) From 26,000 face-to-face at-home interviews from March ‘00 to April ‘01

(2) From 20,000 personal interviews conducted between Sept. ‘98 and Aug. ‘99

(3) From home, work, or other location

Worth Remembering #3

About 80% of U.S. adults with more than $75,000 in HH income used the Net
during the past 30 days

Table 3

Internet Access by Annual Income (U.S.)

millions of adult (18+) users

Source: MRI CyberStats (Mediamark Research), for Spring 2001 data, 10/01

Table 4

U.S. Internet Access by Age

millions of adult (18+) users

Source: MRI CyberStats (Mediamark Research), 10/01

Table 5

U.S. Internet Access by Gender

millions of adult (18+) users

Source: MRI CyberStats (Mediamark Research), 10/01