Americans Spending Twice as Much Time on the Web

Good news for online marketers.

The average amount of time that American spend on the internet per week has doubled since 2001, according to a recent poll by Harris Interactive.  That’s great news for internet advertisers.

According to the poll, U.S. adults spend 14 hours per week online, up from seven.  The average number of online hours grew slowly between 2001 and 2006, but accelerated greatly in 2007 and exploded in 2008.

Amazingly, the United States isn’t the leader when it comes to amount of leisure time spent on the web. That honor goes to China, whose population spends an average of 44% of its free time on the web, according to TNS Global.  The company placed the U.S. in fifth place worldwide, with 30% of Americans’ leisure time spent online. For a more detailed view of how the different countries stack up against each other in terms of Web usage, eMarketer offers this graph.

At-home internet usage experienced an even higher surge in the U.S., according to the Center for the Digital Future. This annual survey found that American Internet users spent an average of 15.3 hours per week online in 2007, compared with about nine hours the year before. You can see how the rise in hours break down for yourself.