New Zealanders access the internet more than computer users in 31 other countries, including the United States and Australia, a new international survey shows.
Seventy-five percent of the 1 000 New Zealanders surveyed in August had used the internet in the previous month, up from 71% in a 2002 survey, market research firm Taylor Nelson Sofres (TNS) said on Tuesday.
Among the 32 countries participating in the TNS survey, The Netherlands was second in internet usage at 72% followed by Denmark (71%), Norway (69%) and the United States (68%).
Near-neighbour Australia came in at number eight in internet usage, with 64% of the population going online.
Australia and New Zealand also recorded high levels of people using government services online such as seeking information and paying government bills, though they were outstripped by countries such as Denmark, the highest at 63%, Norway (62%), Finland (58%), Singapore (53%) and The Netherlands (52%).
Australia’s 47% and New Zealand’s 45% of the population who had used government online services in the previous year were ahead of the US (44%) and Hong Kong (43%).
New Zealand State Services Minister Trevor Mallard, welcoming results showing New Zealanders leading the world in internet use, noted their use of government online services was “well above the global average of 30%”.
Bulgaria brought up the rear in terms of internet use — with only 1% of its people accessing government services online and just 9% saying they had hooked up to the internet in the previous month.
TNS surveyed 32 000 adults in the 32 countries to determine their use of government online services.
The participating countries are Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Faroe Islands, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Singapore, Slovakia, Spain, Taiwan, Turkey and the US. — Sapa-AP
On the net: www.tns-global.com/gostudy2003