In a May 2022 study, Greater London had the highest average broadband usage per household in the United Kingdom (UK) at 506 GB/month, over 11 percent above the national average of 456 GB/month. The region with the lowest broadband consumption per household was in the South West, over 12 percent lower than the national average at 400 GB/month.

The average monthly data use per fixed residential broadband connection reached 535 gigabytes in the United Kingdom in 2023, up from 482 gigabytes in 2022. Increasing broadband data traffic in the UK reflects the broad adoption of data intensive activities such as 4K streaming and online gaming.

In a May 2022 study, Greater London had the highest average broadband usage per household in the United Kingdom (UK) at 506 GB/month, over 11 percent above the national average of 456 GB/month. Around 69.8 percent of connections were superfast, while 5.4 percent were ultrafast connections.

In a May 2022 study, Torquay had the lowest average broadband usage per household in the United Kingdom (UK) at 328 GB/month, 32.5 percent below the national average of 456 GB/month. Other towns and cities with some of the lowest average usage include Exeter, Shrewsbury, and Harrogate.

As of March 2024, the share of time spent using the internet on smartphone devices among users in the United Kingdom (UK) was approximately 75 percent. Internet usage via smartphone was the highest amongst UK users aged between 25 and 44 years old, 83 percent. Tablet devices had the largest engagement among users aged between 65 and over, while the share of time spent accessing the internet via PC or laptop devices was highest among UK users aged 75 and over.

In a May 2022 study, Southall had the highest average broadband usage per household in the United Kingdom (UK) at 589 GB/month, 29 percent above the national average of 456 GB/month. Other towns and cities with some of the highest average usage include Romford, Ilford, and Manchester.

The United Kingdom's average residential fixed broadband speed soared to nearly 140 megabits per second (Mbps) in 2023, up from just 103 Mbps in 2022. This rapid increase reflects the country's expanding fiber infrastructure, enabling ultra-fast connections in many residential areas. FTTC remains the leading connection type The rollout and adoption of fiber infrastructure has been designated a top priority by the UK government, with fast, reliable broadband considered crucial in realizing digital transformation efforts across the UK’s four nations. The number of fiber- to-the-premises (FTTP) broadband connections in the UK increased to almost 5.7 million percent in 2023, up from just 3.7 million the previous year. FTTP is considered ‘full fiber’ in that fiber optic cable is used for the entire length of the connection. However, most UK connections that year were fiber-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) connections, which rely on existing copper cables to deliver services from cabinets to premises. Shifting consumption prompts surging data traffic The surge in UK fixed download speeds has been met with increasing broadband data use. The average residential broadband connection consumed more than 500 gigabytes per month in 2023, up from just 30 gigabytes a decade prior. This increase in data traffic reflects the broad adoption of data intensive activities such as 4K streaming, online gaming, and cloud storage.

The statistic shows the average monthly mobile data use per active SIM in the United Kingdom (UK) between March 2011 and June 2017. In June 2017, the average mobile data use per active SIM was 1.9 GB per month.

From September to November 2023, Google.com was the leading website in the United Kingdom with more than 4.98 billion monthly visits. The search engine was also popular in its UK top-level domain, with Google.co.uk reaching 255 million views and placing tenth in the ranking. YouTube and Facebook were the most visited social media platforms, ranking second and fourth most visited websites in the country.

This statistic shows the average internet connection speed in the United Kingdom (UK) between the third quarter of 2007 and the first quarter of 2017. Within this time period, the average connection speed increased by over 500 percent, with a peak of 16,920 kbps in the first quarter of 2017.

From 2005 to 2020, the number of hours adults spent using the internet in a typical week has been steadily increasing in the United Kingdom (UK). As of 2020, the average time spent using the internet was 24.9 hours per week, an increase of 15 hours compared to 2005.

Internet usage in the UK

Over the last 20 years, the internet penetration rate has increased nearly three-fold in the UK, from 30 percent in 2000 to 87 percent as of 2019. During the latter year, over 90 percent of individuals in the UK accessed the internet at least once a day.

  E-commerce in the UK

The amount of online shopping that people in Great Britain are doing has increased since 2015 as well, with a penetration rate reaching 66 percent in the first quarter of 2019. The increase is more noticeable with smartphone users. According to the results of an annual interview conducted by the Office for National Statistics, most of the individuals in the UK purchased clothes or sports goods, at 60 percent, while a share of 34 percent of online consumers purchased books, magazines, and newspapers.

How much time do people spend on social media? As of 2024, the average daily social media usage of internet users worldwide amounted to 143 minutes per day, down from 151 minutes in the previous year. Currently, the country with the most time spent on social media per day is Brazil, with online users spending an average of three hours and 49 minutes on social media each day. In comparison, the daily time spent with social media in the U.S. was just two hours and 16 minutes. Global social media usageCurrently, the global social network penetration rate is 62.3 percent. Northern Europe had an 81.7 percent social media penetration rate, topping the ranking of global social media usage by region. Eastern and Middle Africa closed the ranking with 10.1 and 9.6 percent usage reach, respectively. People access social media for a variety of reasons. Users like to find funny or entertaining content and enjoy sharing photos and videos with friends, but mainly use social media to stay in touch with current events friends. Global impact of social mediaSocial media has a wide-reaching and significant impact on not only online activities but also offline behavior and life in general. During a global online user survey in February 2019, a significant share of respondents stated that social media had increased their access to information, ease of communication, and freedom of expression. On the flip side, respondents also felt that social media had worsened their personal privacy, increased a polarization in politics and heightened everyday distractions.

During the third quarter of 2024, internet users in the United Kingdom (UK) spent an average over five and a half hours per day accessing the internet via any device. UK online audiences spent approximately one hour and 37 minutes per day on social media, while an additional 50 minutes were devoted to using a gaming console daily. Traditional media - is usage declining? Some forms of traditional media in the country are in decline more than others when it comes to usage, which is especially visible in the case of TV. In recent years the number of TV households in the UK has remained fairly unchanged, however, the time spent watching television has been constantly decreasing. Interestingly, radio listenership has not followed this trend. Digital radio format usage is growing as per some studies. Yet, live radio dominates the time spent with any audio in the UK by a large margin.British radio is a showcase for the loyalty of its fans. In mid-2023, after 30 years of employment at BBC, Ken Bruce, one of the highest-earning presenters of the company, left to work at a rival radio station. He took both of his signature programs to his new employer. Even though BBC Radio 2 remains the leading radio station in the UK by audience numbers, Bruce’s departure meant a loss of a million listeners for the BBC between the first and second quarters of 2023.

A reported 95.3 percent of the United Kingdom (UK) population were using the internet in 2022, the same share as 2021.Internet users in Great Britain 46.6 million people used the internet daily in Great Britain during 2020 according to the United Kingdom’s (UK) Office for National Statistics (ONS), breaking the record set in 2016. 41.8 million people in Great Britain used the internet on a daily basis during 2016, the first time the amount cracked the 40 million mark. Methods of accessing the internet In a survey conducted during early 2018, Ofcom found that 48 percent of the 2,392 respondents indicated that their smartphone was the most important device they use to access the internet, at home or elsewhere. Mobile internet usage penetration is higher in the UK than the EU average, however, as of February 2021, desktop searches still managed to account for the most of the search engine activity in the UK.

This statistic shows the average monthly mobile data use per capita in selected European nations in 2016. During this period, monthly mobile data usage in Sweden amounted to 5.7 Gigabytes, which was the highest among the selected nations. This was followed by Poland and the United Kingdom (UK), with 2.9 and 1.7 Gigabytes respectively.

The number of Pinterest users in the United Kingdom was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2028 by in total 0.3 million users (+3.14 percent). After the ninth consecutive increasing year, the Pinterest user base is estimated to reach 9.88 million users and therefore a new peak in 2028. Notably, the number of Pinterest users of was continuously increasing over the past years.User figures, shown here regarding the platform pinterest, have been estimated by taking into account company filings or press material, secondary research, app downloads and traffic data. They refer to the average monthly active users over the period and count multiple accounts by persons only once.The shown data are an excerpt of Statista's Key Market Indicators (KMI). The KMI are a collection of primary and secondary indicators on the macro-economic, demographic and technological environment in up to 150 countries and regions worldwide. All indicators are sourced from international and national statistical offices, trade associations and the trade press and they are processed to generate comparable data sets (see supplementary notes under details for more information).

This statistic illustrates methods used to access mobile internet in the United Kingdom (UK) and European Union (EU 28) in 2019. Mobile internet access via laptop or notebook device in the UK was above EU average, at 56 percent penetration.

Smartphones have pulled away from laptops to become the most important device used to access the internet for close to half of those accessing the internet in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2020. In 2020, significantly more people identified smartphones as their most important device for accessing the internet, compared with those that nominated each of the large display formats combined.

Increasing use of mobile data

As phone displays and mobile data infrastructure improve, mobile phone users are consuming more data than ever before. From 2015 to 2018, the volume of data consumed in the UK increased from 7.29 million gigabytes to 211 million gigabytes. The average consumption per sim card has increased from .87 GB to 1.9 GB over the same period. Despite the increase in consumption, mobile service providers have not seen an increase in revenue from data services, generating 1.73 billion British pounds in 2017, exactly the same amount as they generated from mobile data services in 2010.

Next-gen communications  

4G currently offers the fastest means of downloading data using a mobile device, but 5G looks set to blow 4G out of the water in the coming years. Once 5G capable devices are more widely available and more affordable, it is expected that there will be 155 million 5G subscribers in Western Europe by 2024. 

This graph displays hours of internet consumption among children in the United Kingdom (UK) from 2014 to 2018, by age group. In 2018, children aged three and four were found to spend 8.9 hours on average consuming internet media per week. During the same year ,children aged 12-15 were found spending 20.5 hours consuming internet per week as opposed to 18.9 hours in 2015.

As of May 2024, internet users in the United Kingdom (UK) spent over three hours daily on smartphones. Young consumers aged between 18 and 24 years reported spending over four and half hours of their online time on smartphones. The same audience spent around 40 minutes using tablets, and 46 minutes on computer devices each day while accessing the internet. The internet usage among individuals aged 65 and over was relatively lower, as they spent less than two hours daily using internet on smartphones, and even less than an hour on computer and tablet devices.