High Usage Of Internet By Older Adults.

Use of the Internet among those ages 55-64 grew to 43 percent in the past six months from 36 percent six months ago and 31 percent eighteen months ago, according to the semi-annual Cyber Stats report from Mediamark Research Inc.

The most common activity on the Internet among consumers 55-64 is e-mail, the MRI data show.

Compared to six months ago, use of e-mail by Americans ages 55-64 has increased by 20 percent. Compared to 18 months ago, there has been a 46 percent increase in e-mail use among Americans ages 55-64.

While fewer older Americans engage in other Internet activities, they are growing in tracking their investments, making purchases, making travel plans and just browsing, according to MRI.

Approximately 133 million U.S. adults–66% of the adult population–have access to the Internet either at work or home, the Spring Cyber Stats show. Of those 133 million, 101 million reported using the Internet in the past 30 days. This means that 50% of U.S. adults, who total 201.7 million, used the Internet in the past 30 days.

Asked about their use of online services like America Online, CompuServe, MSN and Prodigy, 90 million U.S. adults reported using at least one in the last 30 days. The number of adults who reported using either the Internet or an online service in the last 30 days is 105 million, or 52 percent of all U.S. adults. On the high end, 43 million adults reported using America Online, versus 2.3 million on the low end for Prodigy. The numbers for CompuServe are 3.8 million and 18.7 million for MSN.

The Spring Cyber Stats data were collected between March of 2000 and April of 2001.