One house out of four in Turkey has access to the Internet, reported daily Hürriyet yesterday.

  One-quarter, or 24.47 percent, of houses in Turkey have access to the Internet, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute, or TÜIK, 2008 report on the use of information technology in Turkish homes. ADSL connection is the most common way to connect, preferred by 82.1 percent of the users in Turkey.

  A total of 29.6 percent of nonusers, on the other hand, said the reason they were not hooked up was because they did not need to use the Internet at home.

    The results also show that computer usage among household members between the ages of 16 to 74 is 38.1 percent, and Internet usage is 35.8 percent. Of those surveyed, 62.4 percent of Internet users said they were online almost every day.

    The research was conducted between January and March. According to the results, the Internet is most commonly used to read newspapers or magazines. The second most common use is to send e-mail, and the third is to download or listen to music.

  In addition, 7.2 percent of Internet users use the medium for shopping. That was an increase from last year, when the number was only 1.7 percent. However, the number of people who never shop online is still high, at 88.4 percent.

  Vatan