• Generations on Line -- the nonnprofit program for Internet literacy and Access for the elderly, estimates some 21 million people over 65 do not and will not ever use the Internet, unless we intervene.

• Only 13% of those 65 to 69 years of age were Internet users in 2000.
  Source: Changing our ways: why and how Canadians use the Internet, 2001 General Social Survey (GSS) Access to and Use of Information Communicatio Technology*

• Most older Canadians do not think it is important that everyone have access to the Internet (only 28% compared with 52% of those under 60).

• Moreover, only 8% of older non-users were interested in starting.

• Attitudes were not the only barriers to Internet use for older Canadians. Among those who were interested in starting, and did not already have a connection in their home, access to a computer or the Internet (30%), cost (26%), lack of time (15%) and lack of skills or training (14%) were most often cited as the greatest barriers.

• Among older Canadians who had used the Internet, more than one-third searched for health and medical information (38%).
  Source: Study of individuals' use of computer and Internet technology conducted by the General Social Survey (GSS) in 2000, as published in The Daily. Friday, August 24, 2001

• In 2000, less than 12% of Canadians over 55 in the Atlantic Provinces used the Internet.
  Source: Atlantic Provinces Economic Council (APEC) Report Card

• During the year 2000, an estimated 13 million, or 53% of Canadians over 15 years of age said they used the Internet at home, work or somewhere else in the last 12 months.
  Source: Changing our ways: why and how Canadians use the Internet, 2001

  *General Social Survey (GSS) "Access to and Use of Information Communication Technology" is an annual telephone sample survey covering the non-institutionalized population aged 15 and over in all provinces. The focus in 2000 was on the use and impact of computer and Internet technology on Canadians. Data were collected over a 12-month period from January to December 2000. The representative sample had 25,090 respondents, representing an 80.8% response rate. This is the first time that Statistics Canada has collected detailed information on individual use of technology.

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