In all but one of the nine countries measured, ‘fast’ is now the most common connection speed and only a small percentage of people are on ’slow’ speeds. On average, across the nine countries, 19 percent of Internet users connect at ’super-fast’ speeds, 47 percent at ‘fast’ speeds, 26 percent at ‘medium’ speeds and 8 percent are on ‘slow’ speeds.  Only Brazil contradicts this trend with almost half (48%) of home Internet users on ‘medium’ connection speeds and almost one-third (31%) on ‘slow’ speeds.

Switzerland has, by far, the fastest-connected population, with 88 perecent of consumers online at home connecting at speeds greater than 2Mb – and 38% having a ‘super-fast’ 8Mb+ connection.  Following Switzerland, the U.S. (29%) and Germany (27%) have the greatest concentration of people on ‘super-fast’ connections. In fact, all three countries now have more people connecting at ‘super-fast’ speeds than at ‘medium’ speeds (512Kb to 2Mb). Compared to the opposite end of the spectrum, Brazil has 8 times more Internet users on ‘medium’ speeds (48%) than on ‘super-fast’ speeds (6%).

So how does connection speed impact how much time people spend online – do higher speeds mean greater efficiency, therefore, less time online or does the higher quality experience encourage greater activity? The answer – there’s no single pattern across all the countries measured; however, those on the slowest speeds tend to spend the least time online at home.  Only France and Germany negate the trend among the nine measured, and in six of the nine countries consumers using ‘fast’ (2Mb-8Mb) connections spend the most time online.

Switzerland shows the most linear pattern – the faster the speed the more time spent online – as people using a ‘super-fast’ connection (21 hours, 20 minutes) spend twice as much time online as people using a ‘slow’ connection (10 hours, 1 minute).  Italy is the only other country that follows this linear pattern, but the differences in time are much less noticeable.

In fact, for all the countries except Switzerland, the absolute differences in time across the different speeds are generally not that large. Only in Australia, the UK and Spain do we see noticeable differences between those spending the least time online from home computers (people on ‘slow’ connections) and those spending the most time (the ‘fast’ connectors).

Using data collected from its national and local television panels, the quarterly Home Technology phone survey and the Nielsen Claritas 2008 Convergence Audit survey, the report provides a detailed look at how Americans are getting on the internet and the differences by various demographic breaks.

Key findings of the report include:

• Internet access is correlated with education level and a household’s combined annual income. As they increase, so does the likelihood of internet access.
• Internet access is lowest in Hispanic and African-American homes, as well as those where the head of household has not completed a high school education.
• Access is much lower in rural areas and in homes that receive only broadcast TV.
• Those using dial-up service tend be older, with more modest incomes and lower education levels than those using high-speed internet.
• The East South Central region (consisting of Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee and Kentucky), had the highest number of households with no internet access – 26 percent.
• The top five markets with the highest percentage of homes with internet access are Washington, DC, Norfolk, Salt Lake City, Boston and Portland, OR.
• The five markets with the lowest percentages are Knoxville, Greenville, Albuquerque, Memphis and Tulsa.

“Our findings indicate that there remains opportunity for growth in internet access in the U.S.  Indeed, President Obama stated during the campaign that we had to view broadband internet access the same way we did telephone service and electricity – an essential utility available to all regardless of economic status,” said Steve McGowan, Senior Vice President, Insights and Client Research Initiatives at Nielsen.  “But part of the challenge in extending web access to all Americans is the fact that there are more homes without computers, than there are homes with computers but lacking internet access.”

To view the complete report, click here.

The report found that in 2007, 54% of New Zealanders accessed the Internet via broadband — a significant increase that matches improvements in the country’s broadband coverage during the same time period.

Online social networking has also experienced growth in New Zealand, according to Nielsen.  As of the end of 2007, nearly half of all New Zealanders had visited Bebo, the country’s most popular social networking site.  Meanwhile, 45% of Internet users age 14 and older had created online profiles, and 48% had joined friend finder sites.

Blogging also gained more exposure in New Zealand in 2007 — 50% of Internet users age 14 and older reported reading blogs, and 17% have created a blog, according to Nielsen. 

Overall, Nielsen’s report found that 85.6% of all New Zealanders age ten or older (3.1 million people) had access to the Internet in 2007.  Of that group, 2.6 million (72%) went online from home.

View the full press release.

Read Nielsen’s full “Broadband 2008″ report.