Life on the internet in the UK in 2021
The Online Nation 2021 Report published by Ofcom provides insights into use of the internet in the UK. It is packed with insight for marketing and public relations planning.
Ofcom’s Online Nation 2021 Report covers every aspect of adoption and behaviour on the internet in the UK. It is an incredible planning resource. We’ve pulled out trends from the 185 page report across eight areas.
Dan Slee has also pulled out headline from the report. Check out his analysis 2021 NUMBERS: Ofcom media & stats for the UK.
Internet use in the UK
1. Internet as a utility: 94% homes
94% of UK homes have internet access, up from about 89% in 2019. We spend an average of 217 minutes a day on smartphones, tablets, and computers.
2. Mobile phone, computer, and laptop usage: 139 minutes per day on smartphone
In September 2020, UK internet users spent nearly four times as much time on smartphones (139 minutes) than they did on computers (37 minutes). Tablets are typically used as second screens. Write and design for the smart screen if you aren’t already.
Internet inequality
3. Digital divide: 6% older and lower socio-economic households
Six per cent of households don’t have home internet access, and 14% of adults access the internet only infrequently. Older people are less likely to have home internet access (18% of over-64s do not have access), but so too are those in lower socio-economic households (11%).
4. Home schooling: 1-in-5 lack a device; 1-in-10 limited internet access
Virtually all households with school-age children had access to the internet at home, 7% did not have fixed broadband and 4% had access only via a mobile phone. One in five children did not have access to an appropriate device for their schoolwork all the time.
The internet and young people
5. Smartphones dominant gaming device used by 2-in-5 adults
Games consoles and computers are widely used by young adults, but smartphones are the most commonly used device across all age groups and were used for gaming by 39% of all UK adults.
6. Internet usage: children (180 minutes per day) and teens (300 minutes per day)
Seven- to eight-year-olds spent an average of nearly 180 minutes per day online in September 2020 and 15- to 16-year-olds nearly 300 minutes per day. Half of children own a mobile phone by the age of ten, and nearly all children do so by the age of 13.
7. Children and parents ignore age minimums for social media
Despite most platforms setting their minimum user age at 13, by the age of 11 the majority (59%) of UK children use social media. Instagram is used by 66% of 12- to 15-year-olds, ahead of Snapchat (58%) and Facebook (54%).
8. Social media paradox for young people
Nine in ten 8-to-15-year-olds who use social media said it helped them to feel closer to their friends during lockdown. However more than half of the 12- to 15-year-olds had a negative experience online. On mobile phones, the most common of these experiences was being contacted by someone you don’t know (30%), seeing something troubling (18%), or of a sexual nature (17%).
Communication
9. Long live email: 88% online adults
Email is widely used by 88% of online adults. 61% of the UK online adult population use Google Gmail.
10. Video communication: Zoom peak of 13 million lockdown users
Video became an important way for people to keep in touch during the pandemic. Zoom reported 13 million users in April and May 2020, dropped to 10.4 million users in March 2021.
11. Facebook dominates messaging: WhatsApps used by three-quarters of online adults
Facebook is the service that we love to hate. Of online over-15s, 83% (and 97% of 15-24s) said they used at least one Facebook-owned service at least monthly. 75% of online over-15s use WhatsApp, ahead of Facebook Messenger (58%) and Instagram Direct Message (24%).
Sites and apps owned by Facebook and Google accounted for 39% of all the time spent online on computers, smartphones, and tablets.
Entertainment
12. Game play: 3-in-5 played games in lockdown
Nearly two-thirds (62%) of adults, and 92% of 16- to 24-year-olds, said they played games on an electronic device, and more than half said that it helped them get through lockdown.
13. Video: creators and consumers
YouTube was used by 95% of UK internet users in September 2020, who spent an average of 43 minutes a day on the platform. TikTok increased its number of UK adult users from 3.2 million in September 2019 to 13.9 million UK adults in March 2021.
Retail
14. Online retail lockdown boom: 50% growth
Online retail spend in the UK increased by 48% to an estimated £113bn in 2020 (compared to an average annual increase of 13% in the previous four years) as online’s share of retail spend increased from about 20% in 2019 to 35% in the spring lockdown and 30% in December 2020.
News and media
15. News consumption
During the spring 2020 lockdown, half of online adults in Great Britain (52%) said news and current affairs was one of their main reasons to go online. Among news sites, the BBC news website or app is most used with 26% of adults using it in the first quarter of 2021 to get information or news about the coronavirus.
16. Disinformation and misinformation
In late March 2020, when the UK had just gone into lockdown, 46% of UK adults who were getting news or information about the coronavirus pandemic said that they had come across information or news that they thought was false or misleading. This proportion had fallen to 30% by early 2021.
Influencer marketing
17. Influencers as brand marketing
In 2020, more than 400,000 influencers in the UK uploaded content to social video platforms. Examples of popular UK-based content creators include fashion vlogger Dina Torkia, comedian Munya Chawawa, Mob Kitchen and fitness vlogger Grace Beverley.
