Over 10 per cent of UK population has never used the internet

A staggering 11 per cent of UK citizens have never used the internet, despite its prominence in the business and consumer worlds, according to new research from the European Commission.

The figure is down from 29 per cent in 2006, but still underlines the scale of the work facing organisations like Race Online 2012 to get more of the UK population connected.

V3 contacted Race Online 2012 for comment on the figures but had received no reply at the time of publication.

The report, published by the EC's Eurostat statistics arm, also found that 24 per cent of Europeans have never used the internet, underlining the difficulties of convincing people to get online and connecting those in remote locations.

The most connected country is Sweden, where five per cent of the population have never used the internet, while Romania is the worst with 54 per cent yet to experience the online world.

There was some good news in the report for the UK, as the proportion of households online increased from 63 per cent in 2006 to 85 per cent in 2011.

However, 17 per cent of these homes are still using basic dial-up internet services rather than broadband connections, suggesting that superfast, always-on services have not become a 'must-have' for all UK citizens.

Eurostat also revealed that the number of UK firms using mobile internet connections rose sharply in 2011 as the need for constant connectivity became paramount.