Our survey of online users shows some differences in how frequently news is accessed by consumers in different countries across all platforms – TV, radio, and online. The Japanese access news most frequently, with 9 in 10 accessing news at least once a day compared with around three in four Americans in our sample. Across the five countries surveyed in 2012 (UK, US, France, Germany, and Denmark) the individual country figures are broadly comparable to last year but we have seen a general uplift of more than 5%, which could relate to the increased use of smartphones and tablets. We have seen more pronounced changes in the UK and France, with increases of +11% and +7% respectively.

In general, daily news consumption is significantly higher amongst males in all of our surveyed countries. It is also significantly higher amongst those aged 35+ and those using smartphones.

Interest in News

As well as frequency of access, we also asked about levels of interest in the news. Here, our sample from urban Brazil claimed the highest interest in news – while Italy and the UK showed the greatest number of people who were only somewhat , not very, or not at all interested in news.

Across all our countries, interest in news increases with age, with the 55+ group registering 20 percentage points higher than the 18–24s. Again, men say they are more interested in news than women.