ONE in 10 households in Britain do not have access to the internet, according to new figures.
And nearly three in 10 Britons aged 65 and older say they have never used a computer, according to a survey by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The report, ONS Internet Access – Households and Individuals, also showed a huge gap between social media use by young people compared with the older generation.
Some 90 per cent of UK households have an internet connection, up from 61 per cent a decade ago and 80 per cent in 2012.
One in five of those who do not have internet access said they felt they did not have the skills to use it, while nearly two-thirds felt it was unnecessary because it was not useful or interesting.
But eight per cent said they felt the costs of getting online were too high.
The Government’s digital strategy, announced in March, intends to help adults who lack core online skills, while there have been persistent calls to improve broadband access for rural communities.
Scotland saw the biggest rate of growth in access to the web, which is wired in to 90 per cent of households – almost doubling from 48 per cent in more than a decade since comparable records began in 2006.
Access rates among households in the north-east of England and Wales trail at 82 per cent and 84 per cent, respectively.
The numbers of over-65s using computers daily rose from nine per cent in 2006 to 51 per cent in 2017 but some 28 per cent said they had never used one.
Sending and receiving emails remained the most common internet activity, at 82 per cent of users, while the use of social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter was third, behind researching goods and services.
Just 27 per cent of over-65s reported using social media, while it was the most popular activity among 16 to 24-year-olds (96 per cent).
More people than ever before said they were accessing the web on mobiles, handheld devices or portable computers, up from 61 per cent in 2013 to 78 per cent this year.
And online shopping continues to grow over the last 10 years, with 77 per cent of those surveyed saying they had bought goods or services over the internet in the last 12 months – up from 53 per cent in 2008.
Andrew Kaye, head of policy at charity Independent Age, said: “With Britain ageing so rapidly and digital technologies becoming so essential to how businesses and public services operate, we must not ignore the fact that nearly two in five households with one adult aged 65 or over don’t have access to the internet.
“Older people in general are much less likely to shop online, do internet banking or use social media.
“As long as this is the case, it’s really important people still have a choice about how they access goods and services, otherwise we risk disadvantaging a large group of older people by going ‘digital by default’.”
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