The UK is a global leader in online trading
The Government report 'Business in the Information Age' released in 2000 indicated that 27% of UK business is trading online. This put the UK on a par with the USA and Canada and ahead of Germany and Sweden.

Other key findings of the report include:

• 1.7 million SMEs are now online, up from 600,000 in 1999. This exceeds the Government's target of getting 1.5 million SMEs online by 2002, two years early.
  
• 81% of UK business is now online, up from 63% in 1999 -- this compares to 83% in the USA and 80% in Germany 
  
• 90% of us work in businesses which have access to the Internet, a similar number to that in the USA and Germany
  
• 55% of micro businesses (those with less than 10 employees) are online, up from 15% in 1999 - this compares to 61% in USA and 65% in Germany; and 450,000 SMEs are now trading online

Note: The results of the International Benchmarking Study are calculated by using numbers of businesses weighted by the number of employees. For example, '81% of businesses' should be understood to indicate 'businesses accounting for 81% of all UK employees'. Weighting by employment takes into account the economic importance of the businesses involved and allows more meaningful comparisons to be made between countries, avoiding distortions due to differing industrial structures in each country.

UK regional progress
On a more local level, the report shows that every region of the UK has made significant progress in getting online. Key regional findings reveal:

• around 75% of business is online in nearly all regions
  
• in each region at least 80% of employees work in businesses which have access to the Internet
  
• over 50% of business in all regions has a website

For full details of the Benchmarking Study programme and text of the 2002 report, visit the Business in the Information Age website the link available from Related DTI Sites.