If it's Wednesday you're probably on the internet

New research from the UK's Office for National Statistics (ONS) reveals that average daily internet traffic is highest on Wednesdays, while evening traffic peaks on a Tuesday.

The ONS used data from the London Internet Exchange (LINX) network statistics portal to analyze usage trends across the country.

Among other findings are that internet activity drops off around an hour earlier in the summer, compared to the winter, suggesting that we’re ditching work earlier during the summer months to make the most of the lighter evenings.

A drop in internet traffic between 4pm and 6pm coincides with the commuting period. On Friday evenings internet activity tends to fall at a faster rate than the rest of the week, and also tends to be lower during the 6pm low point.

Internet traffic peaks at 9pm every day with the exception of Sunday, where this peak time occurs one hour earlier on average. Public holidays cause a fall off in traffic too, with the Christmas and Easter periods in particular showing a substantial drop in internet activity.

Tom Smith, Director of the ONS Data Science Campus, says:

As we now conduct so many facets of our lives over the internet, its traffic flow can provide us with a very useful indicator of changes in society and the economy.

While most of the data we have gathered so far is as expected, such as dips in internet traffic during commuting hours and peaks during business hours, it is still extremely useful. This data can be used as an extra source to benchmark and measure changing patterns in areas such as transport and the economy. For example, now that we know internet access from businesses drops off from around 4:30pm, if we see this drop happening later in the evening this could mean something about changing business practices that could be investigated further.

You can see the full report on the ONS Data Campus site.

Image Credit: JMiks / Shutterstock