A million Net users in Britain have joined the online community since January, a new report claims today.

According to the latest figures from NetValue there are now 12.8 million people online in Britain - up from more than 11 million in January.

Those who have signed up to the Web during the last year make up a quarter of Britain's total Net population.

And the number of households in Britain has increased too with nine million households (37.2 per cent of the population) hooking up to the Net.

By comparison, almost 60 per cent of US households are hooked up to the Net although recent research predicts that this will level out at 70 per cent by 2005.

Some 2.3 per cent of all Internet users in Britain visited the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Web site (maff.gov.uk) concerning the foot and mouth outbreak.

Thankfully, they don't have to disinfect their browsers before leaving. ®

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