Internet Penetration: Deep

If you think about it for a moment, the fact that 75% of Americans have access to the Internet from their homes after just ten years is remarkable:

In a February telephone survey, an estimated 204.3 million people, or 74.9 percent of the population above the age of two and living in households equipped with a fixed-line phone, had Internet access, up from 66 percent in February 2003.

“In just a handful of years, online access has managed to gain the type of traction that took other mediums decades to achieve,” Kenneth Cassar, director of strategic analysis at Nielsen/NetRatings, said in a statement.

U.S. women were slightly more likely to be Web surfers than their male counterparts, the company said.

Internet penetration for women aged 35 to 54 was 81.7 percent, compared with 80.2 percent for men in the same age group. For the 25 to 34 age group, Internet usage was 77 percent for women and 75.6 percent for men. [Reuters]

I like the image of all those people “penetrating” the Internet. What a lot of people don’t realize that these are still the early days of the Internet – it won’t be too much longer that people will use the Internet with the ease and regularity – and in the same numbers – that they now use TV, radio, and the phone. In fact, it will difficult to tell these things apart.