More than one million Irish people can access the Internet from their homes although the State still lags behind its key global competitors in terms of Internet access, the latest figures show.
Figures supplied by Nielsen NetRatings Global Internet Trends show 1,044,115 people can access the Internet from their homes and some 22 per cent of households own a home computer with Internet access.
Sweden recorded the highest household Internet penetration of 14 countries surveyed at 46.7. Hong Kong came a close second with 46.3 per cent, while Singapore scored 45.7 per cent.
The Republic recorded the fourth lowest total for households with Internet access at only 22.7 per cent. France recorded the lowest total with only 9 per cent of homes with Internet access.
Other data collected by Nielsen shows that Irish people have the highest tendency to click through rate of banner advertisements and Web users visit an average of 16 sites in just over four hours.
Canadians prove to be the most avid Internet users spending close to nine hours 50 minutes surfing the Web each month. While Irish surfers only spend four hours each month on the Web.