Blogging in NZ

On Tuesday, whilst at work, I happened to read the NZ Herald (newspaper).
There was an article on blogging in New Zealand. It was really quite interesting to see what they had to say.

A new study has revealed one in 13 New Zealanders has a weblog, making us the keenest bloggers out of 15 countries surveyed for a world research project.
Researchers at AUT University asked 1430 people about their internet use as part of the World internet Project, a California-run initiative that tracks how people around the world use the internet.
The survey, the first comprehensive study of New Zealanders' attitudes to the internet, found one in 10 internet users had a blog - about 8 per cent of the population.
The director of the World internet Project, Dr Jeffrey Cole, said New Zealand had the highest rate of bloggers out of any of the 15. The other country that rated highly for blogging was Japan.

Now this didn't seem that many to me, obviously it is to the researchers.

In New Zealand, people identifying as Asian were the most likely to report having a blog, with 31 per cent of Asians blogging, compared with 12 per cent of Pasifika people, 6 per cent of Pakeha and 2 per cent of Maori. Most bloggers were under the age of 30.

So I come under the 6% bracket, although I am a little concerned with the age bracket....Most bloggers were under the age of 30....seems I am not the norm??

Most internet users said the internet had increased their contact with family and friends, particularly those overseas. However 22 per cent said they now spent less face-to-face time with the family they lived with.

NZ ONLINE
Of the 78 per cent of New Zealanders who use the internet:
* 66 per cent have broadband.
* 77 per cent check their email every day.
* 28 per cent use social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook.
* 25 per cent have made a friend online, and half of those have gone on to meet an online friend in person.
* 13 per cent maintain their own website.
* 10 per cent have a blog.

I honestly would have said that NZ had such a small population that we wouldn't have had much significance to that much research, but obviously I was mistaken!