Pew Global Attitudes Project

Truly a World Wide Web

Globe Goes Digital

February 21, 2006

As the pace of modernization accelerates around the globe, so too has computer usage and access to the internet. The latest Pew Global Attitudes poll found substantially more people using a computer and going online now than in 2002. And it is not just the young who are increasing their use of technology; in many countries computer use has accelerated most rapidly among people over 50.

In each of the 13 countries for which historical comparisons can be made, more people now use computers at home, school or work than in 2002. The rise is dramatic in Turkey, Russia, India and Poland, where the number of those who say they use a computer at least occasionally has risen by 13 percent to 16 percent in the three years between surveys. Great Britain has seen the largest increase in computer use, up 17 percent since 2002. More modest gains have been made in the U.S. and the rest of Western Europe, where majorities already reported using computers in 2002 although even in these countries the use of such technology has increased significantly.

Internet use is also on the rise in both industrialized societies and developing countries, with the greatest increases among the British, Poles and French. However, there is a stark divide between those countries with high rates of internet use and those with less access to this technology.

Read the full report at pewglobal.org