ICT usage in households

The statistics cover individual's use and access to ICT. Also included are themes like purposes of Internet use, Internet commerce and security.

The notion ICT covers technology related to processing, presentation and storing of information, in addition to technology for communication and exchange of information. Examples of technology that is included in the ICT notion in this survey are different access technologies to Internet and broadband telephoning.

Internet enabled mobile phones that use WAP and GPRS only gives narrowband access and they are included in the dial-up category. Mobile phones with UMTS technology give broadband access and they are included in the permanent connection category.

PC = includes desktop computers and portable computers.

Handheld PC = battery powered wallet-sized computer that can be held in one hand also called palmtop computer.

Sex

Age: 16 - 24 years, 25 - 34 years, 35 - 44 years, 45 - 54 years, 55 - 64 years, 65 - 74 years

Education:

Primary school = education with a total length of 7-9 years. Primary education and lower secondary education

Secondary school = education with a total length of 10-12 years. Upper secondary education and post secondary non-tertiary education

University/college+ = education with a total length of at least 13 years. Incl. research education

The Norwegian definition of the three education levels has been changed and this new definition has been used in this survey from 2007 onwards. The changes have resulted in a significantly higher portion of persons in the group with only primary school education. This implies a break in all time series using this variable. For 2007 information regarding the old definition is also available allowing documentation of the effect of this change.

Employment situation:

student = at school or studying at least 10 hours per week.

employed = have a main occupation as self employed, employee or family worker

retired = receiving any kind of old-age pension assurance or disability pension

self-employed = runs his own company or are a family worker without agreed payment

unemployed = have been unemployed the past three months

Family type: information about the respondent's family type is collected from the population register. In this statistics family types are grouped in 'families with children' and 'families without children'. Children are defined as persons aged less than 18 years at the previous turn of the year.

Household: The household includes all persons living permanently in the dwelling with joint board, i.e. housekeeping units. Persons living permanently in the dwelling, but not at home because of work or similar are also included.

Household income: the total gross income of the household the previous year, rounded by thousand.

Name: ICT usage in households
Topic: Technology and innovation

Division for Business Dynamics Statistics

National.

Annual.

The statistics is published in the second half of the year.

Eurostat and OECD.

Primary data and revised data are stored permanently.

The survey was conducted for the first time spring 2003. The statistics where published for the first time autumn 2003.

Eurostat, public authorities, business and trade associations, research institutes and media are important users.

No external users have access to the statistics and analyses before they are published and accessible simultaneously for all users on ssb.no at 8 am. Prior to this, a minimum of three months' advance notice is given inthe Statistics Release Calendar.

The frames and the guiding lines of the survey are developed through a European project. Euro stat and OECD have conducted this project. The statistics can to a large extent be compared with corresponding statistics from other European countries.

Parts of the survey are also used in EU's "Digital Agenda Scoreboard" for comparison.

Statistics Act § 2-1 (voluntary).

Regulation (EC) No. 808/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 April 2004 concerning Community statistics on the Information Society.

The statistics cover a sample of the Norwegian population in the age group 16-79 years and their use of and access to information - and communication technology (ICT). Statistical unit is person, unless the question concerns the household. In those cases the household is the statistical unit. The household includes all persons living permanently in the dwelling with joint board, i.e. housekeeping units. Persons living permanently in the dwelling, but not at home because of work or similar are also included.

The Statistics Norway's Omnibus survey.

The National Population Register is used when defining the population and drawing the sample. Some of the socio-demographic variables are also from the register.

The survey is carried out among 2000 Norwegians between 16 and 79 years, and is part of the Statistics Norway's Omnibus survey that covers numerous subjects.

The data collection is mainly done by telephone interviews. It is voluntarily to participate in the survey.

PC is in use during the interview process. The questions are read and registered directly on the PC screen. In that way the possibilities of asking the wrong questions are reduced. The answers are easier to control due to pre-programmed limits for valid answers.

The figures represent both the overall use of ICT within the individuals and in the households, divided on the different employment situations, education levels, family types and age. The data material was therefore grossed up (weighted). The objective of the weighting is to gross up the units in the sample so that the characteristics of the sample after non-response correspond as closely as possible to the population.

Not relevant

The interviewers and all the others who works at Statistics Norway has obligation to maintain secrecy. Statistics Norway will never publish or spread information about what each individual has answered.

The survey was conducted for the first time in 2003. Some of the variables, like access to PC and Internet, can also be found in the Norwegian media barometer ( http://www.ssb.no/english/subjects/07/02/30/medie_en/ ).

This survey was implemented by PC assisted telephone interviews. As a result of this, the measurement and processing errors are held on a relatively low level.

Non-response

At the time of the interview 3 of the 2000 persons that where selected to participate in the Omnibus 2 where dead or living abroad. These are not included in the gross sample. Some people did not participate in the survey for other reasons. The total non-response was 785 persons, i.e. 39 per cent of the gross sample.

The basis of the analysis included 1212 persons. Two persons had reached the age of 80 at the time of the interview and were excluded from the calculations. The net sample was 1210.

Variance

The ICT survey is carried out among a sample of Norwegians between 16 and 79 years of age. The uncertainty of findings based on only a part of the population, (sampling variance) depends among other factors on the number of observations in the sample and on the distribution of the current variable in the whole population. An estimate of this uncertainty (standard deviation) can be constructed by means of the observations in the sample.

There is not made an exact calculation of the standard deviation for this survey. However, by using the figure underneath one can find the expected standard deviation for a survey like the holiday survey.

Figure 3. Expected standard deviation for observed percentages by different sample sizes.

Bias

Sampling bias may arise when the distribution of some variables in the sample is not the same as the corresponding distribution in the population.

The results in this survey are based on the information provided by those responding. Non-response is mainly due to the interviewee not wanting to participate or that he/she was not reached by the interviewer.

Not relevant