CHAPTER 5 SOCIO-ECONOMIC FACTORS IN INTERNET AND BROADBAND ACCESS - BY DWELLING AND HOUSEHOLD

In this chapter, socio-economic characteristics of households with Internet access is examined. Variables relating to households examined are:

Income

• Weekly equivalised household income

Dwelling characteristics

• Type of tenure

Household Characteristics

• Family composition
• Family blending
• Household composition

5.1. Income

In this study, weekly equivalised household income is used as a measure of income for examining the association of income on dwelling Internet access rates. Equivalised household income is the total household income adjusted by the application of an equivalence scale to facilitate comparison of income levels between households of differing size and composition. Equivalised household income can be viewed as an indicator of the economic resources available to a standard household. For a lone person household, it is equal to household income. For a household consisting of more than one person, it is an indicator of the household income that would be needed by a lone person household to enjoy the same level of economic wellbeing (see Census Dictionary for further detail).

Proportions of dwellings with Internet and Broadband access are higher for higher income groupings.

The $2,000 or more income group recorded the highest rate of Broadband connection (67%), and the rate of Broadband connection is lowest for the $150- $249 income grouping. Generally, connectivity increases with income.

Table 5: Internet Access by Weekly Equivalised Household Income(a) - August 2006
	Any Internet		Broadband connection		Total
	Dwelling Records	Dwelling proportions	Dwelling Records	Dwelling proportions	Dwelling Records
	no.	% of Dwellings	no.	% of Dwellings	no.
Nil or negative income(b)	43 456	57	30 553	40	76 863
$1-$149	65 080	45	40 136	28	144 566
$150-$249	177 092	35	97 293	19	509 077
$250-$399	476 199	41	260 106	22	1 157 919
$400-$599	695 317	60	407 042	35	1 150 684
$600-$799	684 942	70	424 101	43	980 944
$800-$999	504 333	76	327 540	49	666 924
$1000-$1299	554 724	80	377 487	55	690 055
$1300-$1599	320 272	84	227 470	60	381 170
$1600-$1999	199 738	87	148 501	64	230 449
$2000 or more	179 182	86	139 063	67	207 296
(a) Cells in this table have been randomly adjusted to avoid the release of confidential data.
(b) This income group consist of people with income from unincorporated enterprises or rental properties. The income may be reported negative when a loss accrues to a household as an owner or partner in unincorporated enterprise or rental property. Losses occur when operating expenses and depreciation are greater than gross receipts (ABS, 2007c). Thus this group can include people with considerable wealth.

5.2. Type of tenure

People with home with a mortgage have a significantly higher level of connectivity in comparison with Renters, Outright owners and Other tenure types.

Internet access by type of tenure show a large variation among the different types. The Being purchased mortgage category has the highest proportion of any Internet (80%) and Broadband (54%) connection.

The Being occupied under a life tenure scheme category show the lowest proportions of any Internet and Broadband connection. Dwellings occupied under a life tenure scheme includes arrangements in retirement homes.

The Fully owned and Being occupied rent-free categories show similar proportions.

5.3. Family and household characteristics

5.3.1 Family composition

Family composition classifies families into different types. In doing so, information about temporarily absent family member is also used. No provision has been made to classify family members outside the family nucleus. For example, in a family which contains a couple and their dependent children, plus a parent of one of the couple, the latter is recorded as an Other related individual. For details of the categories of family composition please see the Census Dictionary. Table 6 gives the summary of Internet access by the family composition in private occupied dwellings.

Table 6: Internet Access by the Composition of Families , in Private Occupied Dwellings - August 2006
	Any Internet			Broadband connection
	Family Records	Proportions of families		Family Records	Proportions of families
	no.	%		no.	%
Couple family without children	1 186 865	63		724 407	38
Couple family with children under 15 and dependent students	255 918	92		189 536	68
Couple family with children under 15 and no dependent students	1 093 654	83		730 340	55
Couple family with no children under 15 and with dependent students	282 551	94		215 357	72
Couple family with no children under 15, no dependent students and with non-dependent children	316 262	75		210 926	50
One parent family with children under 15 and dependent students	51 203	77		34 722	52
One parent family with children under 15 and no dependent students	217 531	58		129 619	35
One parent family with no children under 15 and with dependent students	84 143	83		57 046	56
One parent family with no children under 15, no dependent students and with non-dependent children	136 921	54		81 409	32
Other family	50 315	59		34 176	40

Couple families with children under 15, with or without dependent students, recorded significantly higher connectivity than similar lone parent families, or couple families without children or students. Figure 18 presents Internet access broad level composition of families in private occupied dwellings. Dependent children includes both children under 15 and dependent students.

5.3.2 Family blending

Categories considered in this analysis relate to couple families only, based on the parent-child relationships within them.

The results indicate that blending of families have an impact on access to the Internet. Intact couple families with no other children present, recorded the highest proportion of any Internet (85%) and Broadband (58%) access (Figure 19). The lowest proportion of any Internet (62%) and Broadband (39%) access is recorded by the dwellings with Couple family with other children present. This category refers to couple families containing one or more children, all of whom are neither the natural children of either partner in the couple, nor step children of both partners in the couple. The presence of other children (such as foster children, or grandchildren) is associated with lower proportions of Internet access.

5.3.3 Household composition

A dwelling could consist of more than one family. Figure 20 illustrates the variation of proportions of Internet connectivity with respect to household composition. Two family households recorded the highest rate of any Internet (73%) and Broadband (50%) access. One family households recorded similar proportions to the two family household (72% any Internet and 47% Broadband). Lone person households have the lowest proportion of any Internet (37%) and Broadband (20%) access.

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