An interesting study from stats can confirms nothing we would not expect.

80 per cent of Canadians aged 16 and older, or 21.7 million people, used the Internet for personal reasons last year. That’s a big increase over 2007, when the figure was just 73 per cent.

The agency says Internet use was highest at 85 per cent in both British Columbia and Alberta, followed by 81 per cent in Ontario. Calgary and Saskatoon were the most online-savvy cities, with web-usage rates at 89 per cent apiece.

You can read the rest of the article From Stats Can here.

What may be more interesting is to examine the Internet, Canadians were divided into four equal groups based on household income.

The vast majority (94 per cent) of people from households with incomes of $85,000 or more used the Internet, compared with 56 per cent among households with incomes of $30,000 or less. The respective proportions in 2007 were 90 and 48 per cent.

I find 56% a low number for internet usage. So is it that most people with an income below $30,000 don’t have a computer ( I think with the price of computers these days that is not the reason). But Canadian Internet service providers are still charging premium for such an invaluable service.

Do you have thoughts?