Global survey shows digital gender gap

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 14 (UPI) -- The California-based World Internet Project, a unique survey of 14 countries, shows a "digital divide" among nations and between the genders.

Internet use ranges from a high of 71.1 percent of the U.S. population to a low of 17.5 percent in Hungary.

An average 8 percent more men than women go online; in some areas, the gap reaches 50 percent, the study of the Internet's social, political and economic effects shows. In the United States, 73.1 percent of men and 69 percent of women use the Internet.

"We found some online behavior is remarkably consistent worldwide," said Jeffrey Cole, director of the University of California Los Angeles' Center for Communication Policy. "Clearly, use of the Internet is reducing television viewing around the world while having little impact on positive aspects of social life, most Internet users generally trust the information they find online and Internet use is having a major impact on life in urban China."

The project surveyed Britain, China, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Korea, Macao, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan and the United States.