The number of Hong Kong households with a computer connected to the Internet grew to 1,699,400 last year, up 121% from the 770,200 recorded in 2000, the Census & Statistics Department says.

The number of households with computers at home grew 67% to 1,756,300.

According to the February 2010 issue of the Hong Kong Monthly Digest of Statistics, the overall rate of people who have used Internet services in the 12 months before enumeration rose from 30.3% in 2000 to 69.4% in 2009. It has increased remarkably for all age groups compared with 10 years ago.

Most had used Internet services at least once a week, while the average time spent using Internet services each week grew from 12 hours in 2001 to 24 hours in 2008-09. From 2002 to 2009 ticket reservations were the most commonly used online services.

The overall rate of people aged 10 or more who had used a computer during the 12 months before enumeration rose from 43.1% to 70.2%. The main purposes were for using Internet services, word processing, digital photo management and offline digital entertainment.

The rate of having used computers was higher among youngsters.