More older people going online via smartphones: IDA survey

SINGAPORE — More older people are going online via a smartphone, a survey by the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) has found.

The number of respondents in the 50 to 59 age group who said they used a smartphone to access the Internet in the last three months increased by 30 percentage points to 76 per cent last year, compared to 2012, while the number of respondents aged 60 and above who did so increased by 19 percentage points to 34 per cent.

And when they went online using mobile equipment — such as smartphones, feature phones and tablets — these older respondents were mainly engaged in instant messaging, sending or receiving emails, social networks and surfing the web or getting information from it.

The findings were released today (Nov 26) in the 2014 Annual Survey on Infocomm Usage in Households. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with about 3,500 households and about 3,500 citizens and permanent residents. The survey aims to assess the extent of infocomm adoption in Singapore resident households and residents.

Overall, the survey found that Internet usage rates by respondents 50 and above rose significantly over the last few years.

Three-quarters of respondents in the 50 to 59 age group said they used the Internet in last three months, an increase of 24 percentage points from 2012.

Just over three in 10 respondents aged 60 and above said they used the Internet in the last three months, an increase of 15 percentage points from 2012.

The survey also found that slightly more than half of the respondents aged 50 and above learned their computer and Internet skills from their family members.