Canadians the most on-line in the world

Canadians spend more time on-line than anyone else in the world, according to recent research. The average Canadian spends 43.5 hours per month on-line, almost twice the 23.1 hour world average.

Canada has the highest number of web site visits per user per month, at 95, and the second highest number of pages viewed at 3,349. Canada had 23 million unique on-line users in fourth quarter 2010, out of the total Canadian population of 34 million.

One reason for such high usage is likely that Canadians have relatively widespread access to broadband, or high speed, Internet. Broadband access is available to about 95% of Canadians via land-line connections (DSL over phone lines and cable), and satellite and microwave access are available to much of the remaining households.

Males and females had roughly equal usage, and usage was fairly even across the country. The fastest user growth is in people aged 55 and over. This group’s usage increased 12% from the previous year.

Canadians are among the world’s great travellers, making foreign trips in numbers much greater than the country’s relatively small population would otherwise suggest. It seems that their tendency for exploration extends to the Internet.