Survey finds Internet Usage has edged ahead of DIY
and gardening as OAPs’ favourite hobby

 

• Using the internet is the preferred hobby of pensioners

• Four in ten retired people are regular e-shoppers

• 88% of silver surfers chat regularly with friends and family over the internet

A report, released by leading insurer AXA, has found Britain’s pensioners have become a generation of silvers surfers. The research reveals what it’s really like to be a pensioner in eleven countries across the globe, exploring everything from money worries to how they spend their days.


Preferred pastimes for pensioners:

This level of internet surfing puts retired Britons amongst the top five2 users of ‘web time’ in the nations surveyed for the global study. Activities such as chatting to friends, emailing, searching for information, organising finances with online banking and reading the news, means that retirees spend an average of six hours online every week.

Most popular internet activities of pensioners.

 

• The report reveals that far from being isolated at their PCs and losing touch with relatives, the internet-savvy elderly are embracing the web to enhance their social lives and keep in touch with family.

• Of those questioned, 66% regularly contact their children online with more than four in ten (42%) chatting to or emailing their grandchildren over the internet.

• Furthermore, pensioners are shunning the high street in favour of letting their mouse take the strain with a variety of online purchases.

• Travel tickets are the most popular item bought online with 45% of retirees surfing the net to book flight, cruise or coach tickets. In addition, one in three uses the internet to pick up the latest CD, DVD or theatre tickets.

• Significantly, the benefits of purchasing essential items like groceries online (common with 11%) saves pensioners from the long trip home clutching heavy shopping.

In addition, global comparisons show that a stereotypically tech-savvy country such as Japan is left trailing in the silver surfer stakes by other nations. Despite a well-earned reputation for embracing the latest technological developments, when compared to countries such as the UK, Japan’s retired population are less likely to use the internet as a source of information and making contact with friends and family.

Average number of hours per week spent by retired people online

AXA UK is a part of the AXA Group. AXA is a world leader in financial protection. AXA’s operations are diverse with major operations in Western Europe, North America and the Asia/Pacific area.

 

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