By Don Willmott

Who says statistics are boring? If you package them right, they can be a whole lot of fun. So, in true Harper's Index® style, here are some interesting facts and figures about the Internet I recently gleaned from a wide variety of sources. Toss them around at your next cocktail party when the conversation turns, as it inevitably will, to cyberspace. Cheers!

Percentage of businesses (101-999 employees) that have no Internet access and no plans to get it:
53

Percentage of businesses (over 1000 employees) that will have Internet access by the end of year:
66

Percentage of large companies with a publicly accessible Web site:
35

Percentage of medium-size companies with a publicly accessible Web site:
23

Number of America Online subscribers
at the end of 1994:
1.5 million

Number at the end of 1995:
4.5 million

Number of America Online's 5,000 employees who work in technical support:
3,000

Percentage growth in CompuServe
subscriptions for 1995:
100

Percentage of American households that subscribe to an online service:
11

Percentage of home PC users
who are surfing the Web:
25

Percentage of people accessing the Internet from home who do it via an online service:
50

Estimated number of Internet users worldwide
by the year 2000:
1 billion

Estimated number of direct Internet connections
by the year 2000:
32 million

Number of American children who frequently
access the Internet:
1.1 million

Percentage of Internet users who are male/female:
65/35

Percentage of female Web surfers who got started in 1995:
71

Percentage of Internet users who have made a purchase over the Web:
7

Estimated amount spent on goods
purchased online in 2001:
$7.5 billion

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Copyright (c) 1996 Ziff-Davis Publishing Company