Internet and computer usage: comparisons among metropolitan centres, coastal regional centres and inland regional centres

In this exploratory paper the authors compare Internet and computer usage data from the Basic Community Profiles (BCP) of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (2001d). The data is compiled from Census information collected in 2001. The comparisons examine data extracted from three metropolitan centres, three regional coastal centres, and three regional inland centres. The data collected by the ABS enabled comparison of computer usage by age categories and gender. Data on Internet usage enabled comparison by gender and usage location (work, home, school, etc). The picture of computer and Internet usage shown by the ABS data differs from that painted by some government sources, however, the differences could be due to varied samples and skewed distributions based predominantly on metropolitan based respondents.