AROUND 11.4 million households in the UK can access the Internet from home, according to the latest statistics.

Over the final quarter of 2002, an estimated 45 per cent of all UK households could access the Internet from home, an increase from the 39 per cent reported for the same period in 2001.

Sixty-two per cent of adults in the UK have accessed the Internet at some point, according to figures from the latest National Statistics Omnibus Survey.

Among those adults who had used the Internet for private use, 79 per cent used it to find information about goods or services and 72 per cent used it for email.

Forty-eight per cent used it to order tickets, goods or services and 40 per cent for finding education-related information.