The nation's Internet users surf an average of 2.7 hours a day, according to a survey released on Tuesday.
Based on survey results, the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission estimates that the number of regular Internet users rose to 13 million this year, an increase of 400,000 people over last year. Approximately 5.6 million households have Internet connections.
Hsinchu City has the highest percentage of homes surfing the net with 75.5 percent, followed by Taichung City at 73.3 percent and Taipei City at 71.6 percent.
The online population grew by more than 3 percent this year in Keelung City, Yunlin County, Hsinchu County, Miaoli County, Taitung County, Tainan City and Taichung County.
More than 40 percent of Internet users aged between 12 and 20 have their own Web logs, the survey found, while more than 30 percent of Internet users between 21 and 30 years old have blogs; less than 15 percent of Internet users over 30 post to personal blogs.
On cyber-shopping, the survey found that nearly 70 percent of Internet surfers under 30 years old shop online and that one in four Internet users between the ages of 21 and 30 have sold goods online.
Meanwhile, 78.4 percent of Internet users said they were concerned about personal data theft over the Internet, 77.6 percent were worried about computer viruses, 73.6 percent said their email boxes are regularly flooded with spam and 59.4 percent were worried about credit card data theft.
The survey was conducted between Aug. 1 and Sept. 17, with 15,007 respondents above the age of 12 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 0.8 percent.
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