Retirees in the U.K. spending more free time online

British pensioners are embracing the internet and incorporating it into their daily lives.

by Helen Leggatt

According to research done in the UK by insurance company AXA, surfing the web is the preferred pastime of British pensioners. The survey found that 41 percent of retirees in the U.K. put using the internet above traditional retirement activities such as gardening and D.I.Y. (39 percent) and walking (28 percent).

Nearly half said they were regular online shoppers, able to use technology to cut out the trip and stress of going to the local supermarket. Emailing was the most popular online activity (84 percent), closely followed by searching for information (83 percent), travel/ticket purchase (45 percent), banking (35 percent) and reading the news (28 percent).

The research reveals what it’s really like to be a pensioner in 11 countries across the globe, exploring everything from money worries to how they spend their days. The 11 countries, ranked by the average number of hours spent online, by retirees, in a week, are:

UK - 6 hours
New Zealand - 6 hours
France - 5 hours
Germany - 4 hours
Japan - 3 hours
Italy - 2 hours
Spain - 2 hours

Tags: 50+, online banking, online search, online shopping, online travel, pensioners, seniors, UK