One in 10 UK households offline

One in 10 households in the UK still do not have access to the internet, according to new figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The number of households with the ability to get online has remained unchanged between 2017 and 2018 at 90% according to the stats, despite general internet use continuing to rise.

According to the figures, nine out of 10 people (89%) in Britain have used the internet at least twice weekly in 2018, with email the most common internet activity and mobile phones the most popular way to get online.

Online shopping among the over 65s has also trebled in the last decade, the figure has risen from 16% in 2008 to 48% today.

The ONS figures also revealed an increase in the number of adults watching videos on demand from streaming services such as Netflix, rising to 46% from only 29% in 2016.

The stats showed that daily internet use has more than doubled since 2006 from 35% to 86% in 2018, but weekly internet use has declined from 16% in 2016, to only 4% in 2018.

Experts from UK Addiction Treatment (UKat) have warned the increase in daily internet use could be a sign of a growing addiction to getting online among younger users.

Dr Mateen Durrani, general adult psychiatrist, said: “Having our emails at our fingertips day or night encourages an ‘always on’ mental attitude and discourages downtime from work, family time and even human social interaction.”