Active Home Internet Users by Country, September 2008

The Internet population went down in half of the 10 countries tracked by Nielsen Online in September as compared to August 2008.

Switzerland experienced the greatest percentage dip in Internet population in September. The country Internet population went down 3.47 percent, which amounted to 130,955 people. By pure numbers, the U.S. experienced the greatest decline in active Internet users with a subtraction of 2.5 million people, or -1.65 percent. Japan went down by 1.1 million active Internet users, a -2.22 percent loss. The United Kingdom (-1.92 percent); and Germany (-0.90 percent) also went down in the number of active Internet users in September compared to August.

Spain experienced the largest increase of active Internet users with 6.91 percent growth, or 1.1 million new active Internet users. Italy trailed second with 3.64 percent growth. The increase amounted to 751,570 new active Internet users in September.

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.