The results of a recent survey conducted by global market information group TNS reveals an interesting pattern, about free time spent online, by users across different countries.
The survey was conducted across 16 countries, with over 27,000 participants, ranging between 18 and 55 years of age.
Users from China were found to spend the highest amount of their leisure time online – approximately 44%, as compared to only about 16% of free time spent online by users in Denmark, which was ranked last among the 16 countries.
While youngsters below the age of 25 spent about 36% of their free time online, Chinese users in the same age group spent nearly 50% of their leisure time online.
Interestingly, while the average U.K. user spent about 28% of his / her spare time on the net, the average housewife from the UK spent 47% of her spare time on the net, which is even higher than the average time spent by the Chinese online.
Unemployed U.K. resident spent 32% of their free time online; students spent 39% of their free time online.
British residents also revealed that the majority of them do not trust the information provided through newspapers too much. Only 23% of them trusted newspapers, as compared to 69% of people from Finland. The British feel that online news is a trustworthy source of information, second only to that relayed by a good friend.
Where social networking is concerned, the BBC reports that the survey found the average number of online contacts each user had was 17.
When the respondents were asked if they had met any of their online contacts in person, the Germans topped the list, with 76% replying in the affirmative, while China was at the bottom of the list here with only 44% saying yes.
On an average 60% of users had managed to meet some of their online friends. Users from U.K. reported that 58% of them had met online friends, while 455 of them had spoken to them over the phone.
37% of users from U.K., however, reported that they could not be sure of the true identity of their online friends.
