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• 6. Computers on the Internet

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• Statistics on IT in NZ

The data presented in this and the next section covers the number of hosts (computers) permanently connected to the Internet in New Zealand, and the size of the New Zealand domain which is a measure of the number of organisations connected.

6.1 Number of Computers on the Internet

The data for this section is derived from the results of a survey undertaken every six months by Network Wizards. The full survey results are available on that company’s web server at http://www.nw.com.

The number of "hosts" (computers) on the Internet is often regarded as a measure of the number of people with access to the Internet.

To be counted as a host, a computer must have its own Internet address and be permanently and directly connected to the Internet. Home or small business computers which connect by dialling up to a service provider are therefore not counted. Consequently, it is reasonable to assume that there are more users than hosts, possibly by a factor of two or more. To stress this point: the information in this paper refers to the number of computers permanently wired into the Internet in New Zealand, it does not purport to describe directly the number of individuals using the Internet. Figures relating to Internet users and usage should be treated with caution due to the evolving nature of the Internet, the variety of ways it can be accessed and the difficulty in gathering reliable data.

Unfortunately due to a significant proportion of organisations restricting access to their domain data, the survey conducted by Network Wizards has become less able to count all the hosts in the domain system. This proportion rose to 25% in the July 1997 survey and this has led to the introduction of a new survey technique. The old survey method counted the number of domain names that had IP addresses assigned to them. The new survey method used in January 1998 counts the number of IP addresses that have been assigned a name. This distinction is subtle but it does mean the new survey is counting a different "thing" than the old survey. As a result comparisons of data between the old and new surveys should be treated with caution.

Given this change and the difficulty of comparing the latest survey with earlier surveys, Network Wizards have also provided adjusted host counts for earlier years of the survey by assuming that if a certain percentage of domains were missed in the old survey, that the final host count would be approximately that same percentage lower than the actual value. The old host counts were raised by the proper percentage of domains that were not surveyed to arrive at an "adjusted host count", enabling some comparisons through this transition period. For a full explanation of the changes visit the Network Wizards web site at http://www.nw.com.

The following graph shows the growth in the number of hosts connected to the Internet in New Zealand, as well as the number connected worldwide, from July 1991 through to January 1998. A line has been added showing the revised total host counts for the earlier surveys. This line indicates the new survey method finds more hosts than the old method for the earlier surveys.

Growth in Internet Hosts - New Zealand and the World

The straight rising lines on this logarithmic graph tell the same story as the exponential curve usually seen on graphs of growth of the Internet. By using the logarithmic scale both curves can be plotted on the same graph, despite the substantial difference in the actual numbers.

The graph shows a significant jump in the number of Internet hosts worldwide since January 1995. At the same time, the number of hosts in New Zealand has also increased rapidly to 169,264, with strong growth over the last year. In January 1996, the survey recorded 84,532 hosts in New Zealand, giving an annual growth rate for the last year of just over 100%.

This increase follows a period of slower growth from 1995 to January 1997, shown by the levelling off of the New Zealand line above. New Zealand’s Internet had been growing much faster than much of the rest of the world up to 1995, but this extreme rate of growth levelled off in 1995 and 1996 to a more normal rate, where "normal" in the context of the Internet means an annual rate of somewhere between 60% and 80%.

As a result of the earlier exponential rates of growth and the current spurt of growth in hosts, New Zealand has the fifth highest number of Internet hosts in the world for every one thousand people behind Finland, the US, Norway, and Iceland.

The following chart shows the ten countries with the highest Internet host counts by population. These are the same ten countries that were in the top ten in July 1997, the only change being a move of the USA from the fourth highest to second highest. Interestingly, six out of the ten countries are countries where English is not the first language. Note the numbers are rounded.

Number of Internet Hosts Per 1000 People - January 1998

The USA figure includes all hosts registered under the .com and other generic top level domains. It may no longer be a realistic assumption that almost all of these are in the USA, as many commercial organisations outside of the USA have taken the opportunity to register their domain in the format www.name.com . Therefore the generic domain Internet host figures are no longer reliable as an indicator of the number of hosts in the USA.

To show how the numbers of hosts in each of the countries above has been changing over time, the graph below reproduces the data from the chart above and back dates it to January 1996. The key features are the ongoing strong growth in Finnish hosts, the steep increase in USA related hosts and the ongoing steady growth of hosts relative to population in the other countries. There is also a small decrease in the number of hosts per head of population in Australia. However, this and the steep increase in USA related hosts could be adjustments due to the change in survey method.

Number of Internet Hosts per 1000 People January 1996 to January 1998

The following chart plots two variables. The number of Internet hosts for every 100 main telephone lines in the same ten countries is plotted against the number of people for every 100 main telephone lines in each country. The latter variable is known as the teledensity of the country. A relatively higher teledensity indicates that there are more main telephone lines for every member of the population. The number of telephone lines in each country is taken from International Telecommunications Union data and is for the end of 1996. Interestingly the chart indicates that there is no particular correlation between higher teledensities and higher ratios of Internet hosts to main telephone lines. It should, however, be noted there is not a significant variance in teledensity for the ten countries and that all are developed, relatively wealthy nations. New Zealand has the lowest teledensity of the ten countries, but has the fifth highest number of Internet hosts by main telephone lines.

Teledensity and Internet per 100 Main Telephone Lines