Moscow Times October 10, 2002 Study Finds Just 8% of Russians Has Surfed Net By Larisa Naumenko Staff Writer
Less than 20 percent of Russians have used a computer and only 8 percent have surfed the Internet, according to a survey released Wednesday.
The All-Russian Center for Public Opinion Studies, or VTsIOM, asked more than 2,100 people aged 16 or older nationwide about their use of computers and telephones in the September survey.
Some 43 percent said they have a telephone at home, while 9 percent has a cellphone.
Muscovites fared better than the rest of the country, with 91 percent of the capital's residents having telephones at home and 28.6 percent carrying cellphones. Only 21 percent of the rural population has telephones at home, while a measly 2.9 percent has cellphones.
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Only 7.2 percent of Russians have computers at home, up from 5 percent in last year's survey. The highest penetration was in Moscow, where 27.5 percent of the population has computers at home, compared with 2 percent of the rural population.
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The VTsIOM survey revealed that 11 percent of the population used a computer frequently, or once a day or several days a week. Some 25 percent of Muscovites used a computer frequently, compared with only 3 percent in rural areas.
The 16-to-24 age group is the most active, 20 percent using computers frequently compared with 0.4 percent of those older than 65.
Only 3.6 percent of those surveyed use the Internet frequently, with people aged 25 to 34 the most active at 7.5 percent followed by the 16-to-24 age group at 7.3 percent.
Less than 1 percent of the rural population are frequent Internet users.
A survey conducted by the Public Opinion Fund in September said there were 8.8 million Internet users in the country older than 18 years.
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