Over 13 million US adults over the age of 50 have Internet access and this number is growing rapidly, according to a recent study conducted by SeniorNet and Charles Schwab Inc. This figure represents 16.5 percent of the total online population in the US.
The study found that 70 percent of US seniors who own a home computer surf the Web. Further, 40 percent of all US adults over the age of 50 have a computer at home, up from 29 percent in 1995.
Of those seniors who access the Internet, 72 percent do so to use email, 59 percent use it to research an issue of interest, 53 percent to access news and current affairs information, 47 percent to conduct travel research, and 43 percent to get weather updates.
In addition, 40 percent of those surveyed said that using the Internet helped them to make better investment decisions.
The findings are based on a random telephone survey of 600 adults age 50 and over and the error margin is 4 percent.