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Profiles, Usage Patterns of US Internet Visitors Analyzed

US at-home and at-work internet users - numbering some 221 million - logged an average of 60 sessions/visits each (up 3.5% from February) and spent an average of 19 hours and 42 minutes online at their PCs (up 3.2%), according to data (pdf) from Nielsen Online.

Nielsen’s March data on US internet usage among all users:

nielsen-time-place-online-march-08-average-internet-usage2.jpg

  • The number of web pages visited per person increased 2.8%, from 2,370 in February to 2,437 in March.
  • An average of 105 domains were visited per person in March, a slight increase (1%) from the previous month.
  • Internet users spent an average of 52 seconds on each web page viewed, one second less than in March.

Nielsen also issued a demographic breakdown of internet usage by the 164.6 million at-home and at-work internet users who were “actively online in March”:

nielsen-time-place-online-march-08-active-us-audience-profile.jpg

Actively online men…

  • Spent a total of about 70 hours and 47 minutes at their PCs, on average.
  • Logged 62 sessions/visits, on average.
  • Constituted 48.7% of actively online visitors, viewing 2,622 web pages on average.

Actively online women…

  • Spent less PC time than male counterparts (64 hours, 47 minutes, on average).
  • Constituted the majority (51.3%) of active visitors, but viewed fewer pages on average (2,264).
  • Logged 58 sessions/visits, on average.

Those in the 35-49 age group made up 26.3% of all actively online internet users, spending an average of 92 hours and 44 minutes at their PCs, about 7 minutes more than the second-largest age group (those 55+), who accounted for 22.7% of all actively online internet users.

Editor’s Note: Based on reader feedback, the current version of this article has been revised from to make clear the distinction between all internet users and actively online internet users.

Apr 16-08

2 Responses to “Profiles, Usage Patterns of US Internet Visitors Analyzed”

  1. Dash Chang Says:

    Guys,

    Get it right.

    2,400 pages/20 hours is 120 pages per hour. Is it 30 seconds per page or 57??

    20, 70, 65 hours per user; which is right?

    The New Economics of Advertising
    (http://adecon101.blogspot.com/

  2. vahe Says:

    Dash, you’re right… (and thanks for pointing out that the numbers didn’t make sense). We hadn’t made it clear that we’re dealing with two sets of internet users: (1) the entire universe of users; (2) what Nielsen terms “actively online” internet users. The updated version makes the distinction clearer.

    –Editor

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