WebProNews

The stereotypical Internet user used to be a young male, and that still, to be honest, remains somewhat appropriate.  But new statistics reveal that the UK's online population is increasingly made up of people over the age of 55.

"[T]he share made of 55+ year-olds has increased from 16% to 19% - a relative increase of 22%," according to Nielsen Online.  And that would be interesting enough by itself.  Every increase has to correspond to a decrease, though, and the decline occurred in what might be the least-expected place.

"Over the last year (Oct 06 - Oct 07), the share of the UK Internet population made up by under 25 year-olds has decreased from 29% to 25% - a relative drop in share of 16%," the Nielsen report states.

The percentages of Internet users between the ages of 25 and 54 remained roughly the same; they were stable enough, in fact, that we feel all right about lumping together the three separate groups in this range.

With a hat tip to Graham Charlton, then, this story is about done.  It'll be interesting, though, to see if the aging trend continues through 2008.