Active Home Internet Users by Country, March 2009

The population of active Internet users in the 10 countries tracked by Nielsen Online went up almost across the board.

Australia was the one country where the number of Internet users decreased, at a rate of 4.91 percent. In February and into March parts of Victoria, a region in Australia, were stricken by major fires. The fires might be the cause of the lower number of active Internet users.

The U.K. experienced a 6.11 percent increase in active Internet users, a turnaround from the 3.14 percent drop in January.

Nielsen Online uses a sampling methodology applied worldwide, which allows for data aggregation on a regional and global basis. Active Internet users are derived from the number of users who have logged on in the previous 30 days.