The UKOM/NRS Online Population Establishment Survey

UKOM and the National Readership Survey agreed in 2006 to expand the internet section of the NRS questionnaire. These questions, which have been asked within the standard NRS interview since July 1 of that year, make up the Establishment Survey.

The survey covers online behaviour by UK adults, 15+. The survey is concerned with how many UK adults use the internet, who they are, and how often they go online and where. Visits to individual web sites are not recorded – for UKOM, those data will be derived from passive measurement of a panel of internet users as part of the later planning currency.

UKOM aims to create definitive industry data, and has been in detailed discussion with existing suppliers of similar data as to the extent to which UKOM estimates can be adopted as the industry standard. We will publish more details on this site on the outcome of these debates.


Why use the NRS?


Partnership with the NRS allows UKOM to benefit from the survey’s high quality sample which is representative of the UK’s adult population. That sample is very robust as around 38,000 interviews are conducted each year. The survey operates continuously, and face to face interviews are conducted in respondents’ homes using DS-CAPI – double screen computer assisted personal interviewing. The database is updated quarterly.

UKOM benefits because the NRS is already widely used by agencies and media owners. UKOM data have, therefore, been presented in a joint industry context from the start.

As media usage becomes more and more complex, the cost of industry and syndicated research has risen. Cost effective co-operation between the newest and the longest established ‘JIC’ is mutually beneficial against this background.


What are we measuring?


Those respondents who answer ‘yes’ to a filter question on using the internet last year are asked further questions which include –


• How often they use the internet
• Where they use the internet – at home, at work, using a mobile device etc
• When they last used the internet
• Whether their household has broadband
• What equipment they use to access the internet at home
• How many laptops or PCs they have at home
• Whether they use the net at home for work purposes
• Do they shop online?


All the internet specific data can be interlaced with the wealth of other information that makes up the NRS – demographics, for instance, or other media exposure and usage of various product categories.

UKOM and the NRS consider the arrangement as being an indefinite one and are considering ways of updating and expanding this section of the questionnaire.


Using the Establishment Survey


The survey is therefore already playing a part in explaining the differences between the various universe estimates out there, and is allowing co-operation between separate JICs. UKOM own independent estimates of the scope of internet usage have helped in the understanding of issues that are being addressed in the current Request For Proposals.

A number of users are accessing the data via the standard NRS bureaux such as Telmar, IMS and KMR Choices. All NRS subscribers can analyse the establishment survey. Non NRS subscribers should contact UKOM.


Some Findings

Levels of internet use

Two thirds of adults are now accessing the internet – that’s around 32 million people.

Around 9 out of 10 under 35s are internet users, three quarters of 35-54s, and among the 55+ group it’s still as high as 4 out of 10.

Internet use is frequent and regular. The audience to the internet builds quickly – almost all users in the past year have gone online in the past month and a quarter of adults claim to use the internet more than once a day.

45% of adults are purchasing products online.

Recent trends


62.8% of adults were internet users in the first quarter of last year. By the fourth quarter, this proportion had risen to 66.9% So, although growth will be levelling off as the medium matures, at year end there were two million more adults online than at the start of the year.

Likewise, broadband growth over a similar period penetration grew from 54% to 60%.

This probably contributes to more frequent online activity. The number of adults having more than one online session each day grew by around 2.3 million.