Number of Internet Users in Russia Increased by Over 20% in 2009
Moscow, 15 January (Interfax) -- As of autumn 2009, there were 42 million internet users in Russia, or 36 percent of the country's adult population.
The main body of internet users - those who log on daily - is almost 24 million, which is approximately one-fifth of adult Russians (21 percent), the Public Opinion Foundation (FOM) has reported. Its research was published in the latest issue of the newsletter "Internet in Russia."
According to the sociologists' data, in the last year (beginning from autumn 2008) the number of internet users in Russia has risen by 22 percent (7.6 million people) and the growth of daily users is 35 percent (6.2 million.)
"Such growth rates for a crisis year can be regarded as very positive," the head of FOM's "Internet World" project Pavel Lebedev said. He also noted that from autumn 2007 to autumn 2008, the increase in the six-monthly internet audience was 17 percent and the daily audience increase was 48 percent. "In this way, despite a definite slump in the growth rates for the most active part of the internet audience (the daily audience), the growth rates of the wider group of internet users (the six-monthly audience, meaning those who have used the internet at least once in the past six months) have even increased," the expert noted.
As the sociologists' research shows, the proportion of internet users in Moscow has remained stable for about a year and totals about 60 percent of the adult population. Among the federal districts, the leader is the North-Western District - here 48 percent of the population uses the internet. The lowest proportion of users has been recorded in the Southern Federal District - 30 percent.
As before, the typical Russian user of the World Wide Web is a young, educated person with an above-average income, but the rates of internet usage in this category have slowed down, whereas among groups with lower resources the rates have, on the contrary, increased. In this way, among the part of the population with a lower income level, the proportion of those using the internet increased from 12 to 21 percent in one year.
Representatives of the six-monthly audience are implied under internet users; that is, people who have used the internet at least once in the last six months.
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