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Italy and Spain Have Big Gender Gap Online

Posted on: Sunday, 18 January 2004, 06:00 CST

Associated Press -- Italy and Spain have the largest gap between men and women who are online, while Chinese users are most likely to credit the Internet for connecting them with the politically like-minded, according to a worldwide study coordinated by UCLA.

The study found 42 percent of Italian men online, compared with 22 percent of women. Spain was close behind with a gender gap of 19 percentage points.

Next were Korea, Singapore, Macau, Germany, Britain, Japan, Hungary, the United States, Sweden and Taiwan. The 14-country study also looked at urban areas in China and Chile, but the results did not include gender breakdowns.

Among other findings:

-- Twenty-one percent of urban Internet users in China say the Internet helps them increase contact with people who share their political interests. The next highest was also a totalitarian state, Singapore, at 8.6 percent of all users. Italy and the United States were both at about 8 percent.

-- Across the board, Internet users in the surveyed countries watch less television.

-- German, Swedish and U.S. Internet users are most likely to have made online purchases.

The study was coordinated by UCLA's Center for Communication Policy. About 2,000 people were surveyed by telephone in each country, although China and Singapore also used face-to-face interviews. Each country's results carry a margin of sampling error of 3 percentage points.

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On the Net:

UCLA's Center for Communication Policy

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Copyright © 2003 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.

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