A majority of citizens in 24 countries who use the Internet say they do so to check their bank accounts (59%), half (48%) shop for products online and four in 10 (41%) have surfed to look for jobs in the last three months, finds a new poll by global research company Ipsos for Reuters News.
E-banking taking hold
About six in 10 (59%) citizens connected on the Internet have used the Web to 'check bank accounts and other financial holdings' in the last 90 days.
The vast majority of Swedes (88%) are using e-banking, as are three-quarters in France (76%), Canada (75%), Australia (74%), Poland (74%), South Africa1 (74%) and Belgium (73%).
Only one-quarter of those in Mexico (23%) are shopping online, joined at the bottom of the list by Saudi Arabia (29%), Brazil (32%) and Argentina (36%).
Shopaholics in virtual world
Half of online-connected citizens around the world have taken their shopping to cyber space; 48% say they have used the Internet in the past three months to 'buy products/services online'.
South Africa at a Glance
The list is slightly different for those using the Web to research products they wish to buy. Sweden (80%), Turkey (74%), Great Britain (71%), Indonesia (69%), South Korea (69%) and the United States (68%) lead on this measure, while Saudi Arabia (36%), Hungary (44%), Mexico (45%), India (53%) and Belgium (55%) round out the bottom of the list.
Interestingly, even those countries at the bottom have meaningful proportions of Internet surfers who use the Web for researching products they want to buy.
Forget the classifieds, hit the Web
Four in 10 (41%) online global respondents have used the Internet 'to look for a job or search job (recruitment) sites' in the last three months.
About six in 10 of those in Poland (61%), Hungary (58%), South Africa (57%) and Mexico (55%) have logged on to look for a job, while only 17% in Japan, 25% in South Korea and France, and 26% in Belgium have done so.
Demographic profile
Those most likely to say they check their bank accounts online are online-connected global citizens who have a high household income (69%), high education (66%) and are between the ages of 50-64 (65%).
Online shoppers are mostly high income earners (56%) and highly educated (55%), while those most likely to look for a job online have a low household income (48%), are under the age of 35 (47%) and are unmarried (45%).
About the survey
These are some of the findings of an Ipsos Global @dvisor poll conducted on behalf of Reuters News. The survey instrument is conducted monthly in 24 countries via the Ipsos Online Panel system. The countries reporting herein are Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and the United States of America. An international sample of 19 216 adults aged 18-64 in the US and Canada, and age 16-64 in all other countries, were interviewed between 7-21 February 2012. Approximately 1 000+ individuals participated on a country by country basis, with the exception of Argentina, Belgium, Indonesia, Mexico, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden and Turkey, where each have a sample 500+. Weighting was then employed to balance demographics and ensure that the sample's composition reflects that of the adult population according to the most recent country Census data, and to provide results intended to approximate the sample universe. A survey with an unweighted probability sample of this size and a 100% response rate would have an estimated margin of error of +/-3.1 percentage points for a sample of 1 000 and an estimated margin of error of +/- 4.5 percentage points for a sample of 500, 19 times out of 20 per country of what the results would have been had the entire population of the specifically aged adults in that country been polled.
For full tabular results, please visit the Ipsos Web site at www.ipsosglobal@advisor.com.
