Access strongest in the workplace

Eighty one percent of all respondents to Netratings were in fulltime employment. Sixty two percent of visitors to the Internet did so from their workplace, compared to only 27% from home, 6% from an educational establishment and 3% from an Internet café. Forty one percent of respondents, however, did not have access to the Internet from home.

The relatively low access rates from home reflect the high costs of Internet access for SA consumers, which the OPA suggests are way beneath their potential strength.

Urban user base

Online media consumption is strongest in urban areas: 27% of access takes place from Johannesburg, 12% from Pretoria, 16% from Cape Town and 6% from Durban, with other larger cities also showing higher usage than other areas.

Outside of SA's major cities, the least reported access of online media was in the Northern Province and the Northern Cape, both accounting for 1% of total traffic each.

Young, well-educated and high income users

Fifty nine percent of web users are younger than 35: 18 - 24 year olds make up the largest age group (32%) followed by 25 - 29 year olds (17%) and 30 - 34 year olds (15%). Education levels are high, with 79% having some further education and 34% having a degree or post graduate degree.

Income levels are also high, with 39% of web users having an annual household income of over R150 000 and of these, 18% having an annual household income over R400 000.

The language of the net

English was the most commonly reported first language of Internet users (55% of respondents), followed by Afrikaans (26%). IsiZulu (5%) and IsiXhosa (4%) were the next most reported first languages; however, they are both slowly on the increase, having both made up 3% of respondents each in October 2004.

The OPA and Nielsen/Netratings release demographic information and web usage statistics on a quarterly basis. Demographic details are based on online surveys completed by over 37000 individuals in October 2007. Web usage statistics were measured between July and September 2007.

*According to research by Nielsen//NetRatings.

**According to recent research by World Wide Worx