How easy is the Internet to use?

Questions 59, 60 and 64 involved scales to measure respondents perceptions of ease of use of the Internet. The responses to these questions are combined in Table 10.

Table 10: How well respondents access, use and find information on the Internet

Data shown as percentage rounded to a whole number

The only significant differences in relation to gender for this question-set were that males were more likely to give a score of 10 (21.7%), and females a score of 5 (15.6%), for how well they could use the Internet in general. In regards to age, those aged 30-39 (24.4%) were significantly more likely to found it very easy to use the Internet while those aged 50-59 and 70+ were significantly likely to respond that it was not easy. Regarding the ease of finding government information online both under-20s and 20-29 year olds found this easy, giving a score of 8 at significant levels. Finally, for the third question (ease of access to the Internet) was that those aged 30-39 were more likely to give a score of 10, finding this very easy.

Similarly, there were few significant responses to this set of questions related to income source, household composition, or income level. Respondents with bursary examination passes, higher school certificate, or a Bachelor's degree were more likely to score 10 ('very well') at Question 59: 'How well can you use the Internet in general', while those with technical or trade certificates were likely to score 6. Super annuitants were more likely to score 1 at Question 60 ('How easy would you describe the task of finding the information or form you were looking for on line?' - 8.2%). Those with high school qualifications were likely to score in the mid-rage for this question. Those with graduate degrees tended to score '8' although the number is small - 23. There were a number of significant responses in regards to answer choice 10, 'very easy' at Question 64 'How easy is it for you to get access to the Internet?'. Those significantly more likely to give this answer included those living with partners (70%), those aged 30 to 39 (73%), wage or salary-earners (70%), and those in the income brackets of $40,000 to $59,000 (75%). Super annuitants were significantly unlikely to find it easy to get access to the Internet, with a score 10 on this question.

In terms of education level, responses showed an unsurprising relationship: those with University entrance or trade or technical certificates were significantly more likely to score '8'; those with Bachelor's and Graduate degrees were more likely to score higher (Bachelors 10, Graduates 8 and 9, although, again, the numbers are small).

City dwellers were more likely to score highly on all three scales, most markedly with 70% (1263) giving a score of 10 on the third scale (ease of access), while the opposite was the case for country dwellers. There was no significant difference by geographical location for ease of Internet use. In relation to the ease of finding information, South Islanders were more likely to give mid-range scores, particularly 3 and 6, and less likely to give a score of 10. South Islanders were also more likely to give a score of 3 in relation to ease of access, while upper North Islanders were significantly less likely to give this score.