In 1997, a plurality of respondents, regardless of education level, indicated that the absence of a strong need was the main reason for not having Internet access from home. By 1999, the shift towards cost as the main barrier resonated among respondents from all educational levels. In 2001, lack of interest ranks as first reason for not having home access to the Internet among most education levels.

It is interesting to mention that lack of need is decreasing in importance as a main barrier for university educated respondents over the past four years, declining from 44% in 1997 to 27% in 2001.

Table 8 displays the main barriers to home Internet access by income categories, tracking results from 1997, 1999, 2000 and 2001. It comes as no surprise that cost as a main barrier is linked to income, especially among respondents with household incomes under $20,000 per year. This is most noteworthy in 1997 and 1999, when the overall shift towards cost was uncovered among the population as a whole. By 2000, the more extreme differences and polarization by income levels seem to have attenuated to a great extent. While cost is still the most important factor among respondents with low household incomes, lack of interest dominates in upper income categories in the 2001 survey of Canadians.

Another interesting result to note is the large proportion of respondents in higher income categories ($80,000 to $99,000 and >$100,000) who cite “lack of need” as the main reason they do not have Internet access from home in 1999 and, to a more important degree, in 2001. These responses may be capturing a segment of the population that has access to the Internet elsewhere (likely in the workplace) and therefore do not think they need Internet access from home.