Just Who Does the Internet Reach?

Only six in ten still have internet access; penetration is slowing down

% percentage with internet access at home or at work, 4th quarter 2006

Base: c. 10,000 GB adults 15+, October-December 2006, (compared to c. 12,000 GB adults 15+, January-March 2005) Source: Ipsos Monthly Technology Tracker

Just who does the Internet reach, anyway? About six adults in ten in this country, that's who. And who are these people, anyway? They're younger people, who tend not to vote, and middle-class, that's who.

About three in four middle-class families have access to the Internet, and many of them don't use it much, as do three in four of young people, 15-24, fewer than four in ten who voted in the last general election.

If you can read the small print in the table, the tiny figures next to the current incidence of people who have access to the Internet either at home or at work, these represent the change of access since the first quarter's figures in 2005, just before the general election campaign began. Hardly any movement, comparing samples of 12,000 then and 10,000 in the IV Quarter 2006, a year and a half into the life of this government. Sixty percent then, 62% now; up just two points. Twenty-three percent of the people 65 and older then, 24% now; up just one point, neither increase statistically significant.

It looks like the rapid trajectory in the growth of the Internet has just about peaked for now, and increases among those with access to the Internet will grow, but very slowly, you could say it will take a generation for significant growth to take place, as people growing up with it or taking it on in middle age replace the now older generation.

So what? So this has serious implications for politics, and serious implications for government policy. There's still a belief that it is important for MPs to have a blog, to set up web sites, and to answer emails, and so it is. But it is also important to press the flesh, to appear on local radio and television and in the local newspapers, to have a constituency newsletter, and to be seen and heard, because very many of the voters you count on to come out to support you aren't on the internet, and many of those who are don't log on or bother to Google.

Remember, all of the increase, miserly as it was, in voting in the last election was in the 65+ age group, who represent 21% of the electorate, but 26% of those who voted, not the 11% of the 18-24 year olds, just 7% of voters. As I've been saying for over a decade, grey power has nearly four times the political punch as the youth vote, as they are twice as likely to vote, 75% to 37%, and nearly twice as many of them, 21% to 11%.

As for government policy, so much money and effort, not to mention the irritating Inland Revenue TV and radio commercials, cute at first, but too repetitive, most of the folks that government policy is designed to help can't be via the Internet, as they're not on the net, and have no intention to be, three in four of the elderly, and nine in ten of those living on state benefits, in the DE social class who are 65 or older.

Now if that's not enough to depress you, think about this, more than a third of the electorate don't read any national daily newspaper regularly either, that these people are most likely the same folks who don't have access to the Internet, so it's up to you to organise to reach them some other way, by a newsletter through the letterbox (which most won't read), and by the way, better cosy up to your local newspaper editor, as more read the local paper than the nationals, and don't forget the local radio and TV.

One thing you can forget though is the local authority Internet TV waste of money, as it's the last thing anybody's likely to bother with looking at.

Sir Robert Worcester, a CIPR gold medal winner, is Founder of MORI