News 

Sixty-nine per cent of households in the South West have internet access, exactly the same percentage as London. The East of England (67%), South East (65%) and Scotland (60%) make up the rest of the top five.

London does, however, remain the region with the most broadband connections, with six in ten households benefiting from high-speed connections.

At the other end of the scale, Northern Ireland, the North East and Yorks & Humber have the fewest net-connected households, with only 52% currently online.

What's the biggest barrier to greater internet usage? Just over half of respondents said they simply didn't have time to go online more, while a fifth blamed their lack of skills or knowledge. A futher 12% said their connection was too slow.

The survey also exposes the growing popularity of digital downloads with 15% of internet users downloading films or music, the same percentage downloading computer software and 6% accessing "electronic reading material". In each of those categories, men were about twice as likely to be making the downloads than women.