LONDON, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Almost 42 million adults in Britain access the Internet daily or almost daily in 2016, the Office for National Statistics said Thursday.
The survey by ONS also reveals that almost 90 percent of households in Britain (23.7 million) now have Internet access, an increase from 86 percent in 2015 and 57 percent in 2006.
Ten years ago just over a third of Britons used the Internet on a daily basis, statistics from ONS revealed.
This year's total is almost four percent higher than in 2015.
New analysis also shows that 21 percent of adults now use smart televisions to connect to the Internet.
This year, 77 percent of adults have bought goods or services online, up from 53 percent in 2008, but only up one percentage point from 2015.
Kate Davies, Surveys and Economic Indicators Division at ONS said Thursday: "Regular Internet use continues to rise, with more than eight in 10 people going online almost every day in 2016."
However, many older people are still to catch up with the digital revolution, with nearly half of single pensioners still having no Internet access at all."
Desktop computers are becoming a thing of the past for many, with 71 percent of British adults accessing the Internet using mobile or smartphones, with 61 percent using laptops or netbook devices to surf the net, and 52 percent using a tablet computer. Just 40 percent now rely on desk top computers to access the Internet.
ONS said 75 percent of adults now use the Internet "on the go" using a mobile phone or smartphone, portable computer or handheld device.
In the 16 to 24 age bracket, this rose to 97 percent, while just a third of people aged 65 and over accessed the Internet on the go.
The survey will also come as bad news for the struggling print media industry. All Internet activities that were surveyed in 2007 and again in 2016 have seen an increase, with reading online news, newspapers or magazines showing the largest increase, 60 percent of adults in 2016, three times the level in 2007 when just 20 percent accessed news on the Internet.
Sending and receiving Internet messages remains the great use of the Internet, accounting for almost 80 percent of its use.
By far the biggest group using their devices for Internet banking were 25 to 34 year olds, compared to just a quarter of people aged 65 and over opting for banking on the Internet.
Britain ended the 20th century with about one in 10 households having Internet access, five years into the new millennium it was over half, and has now reached nine out of 10 households.
