The one in six excluded from the world

This morning's Observer takes a look at the estimated 10 million people across Britain who have no internet access.

As Tim Adams points out

This one-in-six population might have avoided the addictions of browsing and the despond of "you have no new mail" but they are also increasingly excluded from the opportunities and conversations of the world.

But there are also some statistics

1.the 1.6 million children in Britain who do not use the internet would increase their lifetime earnings by a collective £10.8bn were they to log on tomorrow;

2.those who shop online and pay their bills through the internet, make "average savings of £560 a year"

3.if everyone was connected the Treasury would make overnight efficiencies of £1.77bn,

4.Access to the internet, and the ability to navigate the web has, for example, been shown to produce a significant rise in social confidence among 60 per cent of those who had previously been excluded, while in recent studies of internet usage among individuals who considered themselves to be depressed, "feelings of loneliness" decreased in 80 per cent of cases once people got online, and depressive symptoms were "cured" in 20 per cent of cases

Some quite astounding figures hence the rush by government to get everyone online and one other statistic is also very important

the internet has often been charged with increasing alienation in society, making each of us self-absorbed in an abstracted world wide web which caters to our every whim. A good deal of recent research, however, suggests that the converse is true. Technology has the ability to create links that societies increasingly lack.