The steady increase in the ownership of consumer durables which has been evident since data were first collected by the GHS in the 1970s, has continued up to 2000 with a few exceptions. Colour, black and white televisions and washing machines were available in most households by the early 90s. In 2000, nearly all households also had central heating (92%) and a telephone. For the first time in 2000, the GHS identified fixed and mobile phones separately.

• In 2000, 98% of households had a telephone (either a fixed or mobile phone) compared with 96% in 1998. This increase was most likely due to an increase in the ownership of mobile phones. In 2000, 93% of households had a fixed telephone and in 58% of households, at least one person had a mobile phone. Four percent of all households had a mobile phone only (not shown in Table).

Ownership of the following items was notably higher in 2000 than in 1998:

• satellite, cable and digital (first included in 2000) television receivers - from 29% in 1998 to 40% in 2000
• CD players - from 69% in 1998 to 77% in 2000
• home computers - from 34% in 1998 to 45% in 2000.

In 2000, the GHS asked questions for the first time about access to the Internet at home.

• A third of all households had access to the Internet at home. Nearly all of these households (31% of all households) accessed the Internet from their home computer.