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Summary of the 2004 Survey of Household Economy (Results Related to Information Technology (IT))
I Outline
1. Ownership and Utilization of Equipments and Services Related to Information Technology (IT)
a. Ownership of Equipments which connected to the Internet
The proportion of households owning equipments which can be connected to the Internet was 55.8% in 2004, up 2.2 percentage points from the previous year(53.6%). Among the equipments, Personal Computer/Word Processor together held the largest share of 46.9%, followed by Cell Phone/PHS, which accounted for 41.9%. Compared with the preceding year, Personal Computer/ Word Processor registered a 1.5-point increase, while Cell Phone/PHS marked a 2.6-point increase.
b. Equipment which are connected to the Internet for a long time
Among the equipments which can be connected to the Internet, equipment which are connected to the Internet for the longest time was Personal Computer/Word Processor (34.5%), followed by 8.0% of Cell Phone/PHS. Compared with the preceding year, while Personal Computer/Word Processor marked a 2.0-point increase, Cell Phone/PHS registered a 0.4-point decrease.
c. Means of Communication for accessing Internet
Among households owning equipments which can be connected to the Internet, the proportion of those accessing the Internet (except for i(L)-mode, Vodafone-live and EZweb) was 36.1%, expanded by 1.3 points over the preceding year. Breaking down the access by means of communication which are used most frequently, xDSL lines (ADSL, etc.)marked 15.1%,rose 3.3 points over the preceding year, followed by ISDN lines(6.2%), declined by 0.6 point and analog telephone lines(6.1%), declined by 3.0 point.
2. Utilization of Internet
a. Utilization of the Internet by Purpose
The proportion of households in which at least one member of a household had accessed the Internet at any time within a month was 42.6%, up 1.0 points over the preceding year.
Breaking down these figures according to the purpose of an access, the collection of information accounted for the largest share (39.1%) among the households surveyed, followed by e-mail (30.7%) and Internet shopping (13.8%).
b. Utilization of the Internet for purchasing goods and services
In an analysis of the utilization of the Internet for purchasing goods and services, the proportion of households in which at least one member of a household had used the Internet for the collection of information was 26.3%, up 2.3 points over the preceding year. The proportion of households in which at least one member of a household had ordered anything via the Internet was 16.6% of all the households surveyed, while that of households in which at least one member had paid via the Internet stood at 9.1%.
II. Analysis by characteristics of Households
Two-or-more person households
1. Analysis by Age Group of Household head
a. Ownership of equipments which can be connected to the Internet
In an analysis of households owning hardware with the Internet access by Age Group of the household head, the 40-49(years old) group was the top at 80.4%, followed by those aged 30-39 at 80.3% and those under 30 at 70.9%.
The lowest rate was 29.2% for households whose heads were 70 years old or above.
In a breakdown by type of hardware with the Internet access, the proportion of Personal Computer/Word Processor was the highest in every bracket of those above 30 years, while that of Cell Phone/PHS was the highest in those under 30.
b. Utilization of the Internet
In an analysis of households in which at least one member of a household had accessed the Internet within a month, the 40-49 group marked the highest proportion at 68.3%, followed by those 30-39 years old at 67.5% and the under-30 group at 57.0%. Those 70 years old or above were again the lowest at 17.7%.
In terms of the proportion of households in which at least one member of a household had collected information via the Internet for purchasing goods and services, the highest ranked age group was the 30-39 group at 45.8%, while the lowest was the over-70s generation at 8.8%.
2. Analysis by Occupation of Household head
a. Ownership of equipments which can be connected to the Internet
As for the proportion of households owning hardware with Internet access by occupation of household head, senior executives of companies was the highest at 74.8%, followed by employees at 72.8% and self-employed persons and others at 58.7%.
b. Utilization of the Internet
As for the proportion of households in which at least one member of a households had accessed the Internet within a month, senior executives of companies was the highest at 62.3%, followed by employees at 58.7% and self-employed persons and others at 43.0%.
3. Analysis by Yearly Income Group
a. Ownership of equipments which can be connected to the Internet
In terms of the proportion of households owning hardware with Internet access, a tendency was found that the higher the income is, the higher the ownership rate of such hardware is.
b. Utilization of Internet
The proportion of households in which at least one member of a household had accessed the Internet within a month, it was found that the greater the income is, the higher the access rate is.
A similar trend was found regarding the proportion of households in which at least one member had collected information via the Internet for purchasing goods and services.
One-person households
1. Analyses by Age Group and Sex
a. Ownership of equipments which can be connected to the Internet
As for the proportion of households owning hardware with Internet access, those below 35 years of age was the highest at 78.9%, followed by the 35-59 group at 46.2%, while the lowest rate (12.6%) represented those 60 years old or above. In an analysis by sex, men marked a higher rate of ownership (55.5%) than women (29.2%).
By type of hardware, Cell Phone/PHS ranked the highest in the under-35 group, while that of Cell Phone/PHS was almost the same situation as Personal Computer/ Word Processor in the 35-59 group.
b. Utilization of the Internet
As for the proportion of households in which at least one member had accessed the Internet within a month, the highest rate of 64.5% was registered by the under-35 group, followed by 31.5% for those 35-59. The lowest rate (5.6%) was marked by those over 60. In a breakdown by sex, men showed a higher rate (41.6%) than women (20.6%).
In terms of the proportion of households that had ever collected information via the Internet for purchasing goods and services, under-35 group was the top at 41.6%, while the lowest was the over-60 group at 2.5%. In an analysis by sex, rate of men (27.1%) was higher than that of women (12.1%).
2. Ownership of equipments which can be connected to the Internet by Yearly Income Group In households owning hardware with Internet access, it was found that the greater the annual income is, the higher the ownership rate is.
(Appendix) Quarterly Analyses
1. Trends of Ownership and Utilization of equipments and Services Related to Information Technology (IT)
a. Trends of Ownership of equipments which can be connected to the Internet
In terms of the proportion of households owning hardware with Internet access, the ownership rate was generally higher than the corresponding quarter of 2003: 55.9% in January-June, 56.6% in July-September and 54.9% in October-December.
In terms of types of hardware, Personal Computer/Word Processor was the highest in every quarter, followed by Cell Phone/PHS.
b. Trends of Means of Communication for accessing Internet
Among households owning hardware with Internet access (except direct Internet access by i-mode/L-mode and other telephones), the proportion of those accessing the Internet generally increased from 2002.
Tracing the trend of the most frequently used means of communication, the share of analog telephone lines was 8.8% and that of xDSL lines 7.6% in the October-December quarter of 2002. But their relative positions were reversed in the January-March quarter of 2003 (9.7% against 10.5%), followed by a widening tendency of the gap between them.
2. Trends of Utilization of Internet
In an analysis of households in which at least one member had accessed the Internet, the proportion of households in which at least one member of a household had used the Internet for the collection of information was 39.5% in January-March, 38.4% in April-June, 39.6% in July-September and 38.8% in the October-December quarters, showing a generally upward tendency since 2002. The share of e-mails was about the same as in 2003, standing at 31.3% in January-March, 30.6% in April-June, 31.3% in July-September and 29.8% in October-December.
The upward trend of Internet shopping was still going since 2003, marking 13.2% in January-March, 13.4% in April-June, 14.1% in July-September and 14.4% in October-December.
