The majority of internet users in South Africa access the web via mobile devices, with only 10 per cent of households in the country having internet access at home, according to Statistics South Africa (SA).
In its General Household Survey for 2013, released yesterday, Statistics SA said only 10 per cent of total households in the country had internet access at home, with the Western Cape and Gauteng provinces hosting the highest numbers of home internet connections at 21 per cent of households and 15.6 per cent of households respectively.
Residents of Limpopo province are the least likely to have home internet access, at only three per cent of households.
Conversely, 30.8 per cent of the population use mobile devices to access the internet, proving to be the country’s preferred method of web access.
Mobile access was highest in Gauteng province at 38.3 per cent of residents, followed by the Western Cape at 35.4 per cent, and the Free State at 34.3 per cent of the province’s population.
Only 16.1 per cent of South Africans access the internet at their place of work, the report reveals, with Gauteng leading again with 27.5 per cent of the province’s residents using internet at work, followed by the Western Cape at 24.4 per cent. The remaining provinces saw work-based internet access at 10 per cent of the population or below.
The Western Cape led internet access at educational institutions and internet cafes with 16.7 per cent rate, followed by Gauteng at 15.1 per cent of residents at the Free State at 10 per cent of its population.
Other states saw very low levels of internet access at educational institutions and internet cafes, at under seven per cent, and as low as 1.6 per cent in Limpopo state.
Statistics SA said its research showed 40.9 per cent of households in the country have at least one person who can access the internet at home, place of work or study, or at internet cafes; reiterating the important role of mobile access.
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