The bar charts illustrate how Australian residents use the internet for various purposes, divided into age percentages in the years 2010 and 2011.
Overall, most Australian individuals used the internet to send and receive emails. Moreover, surfing social media was the primary purpose for adolescents when using the internet, while the elderly preferred emailing and making online payments.
Regarding the usage, the figure for composing and reading emails remained the highest, at nearly 70%. This was followed by paying online bills and browsing social media networks, which accounted for about 50% and 45%, respectively.
Concerning the data on age proportions, approximately 80% of people over 65 years old paid online bills and emailed on the internet, slightly higher than the figure for Australians aged 40 to 60, at about 70%, and only 60% of people aged 18 to 40 used the internet for the same purposes. The percentage of users surfing social media declined steadily with age, and almost all Australian youth owned a social networking account, which was nearly four times higher than the lowest record for the elderly, at about 25%.