How Many People Own a Computer in the UK? [2024]

The tech industry has been thriving over the past few decades. We can communicate with people, shop online, create a new web page within minutes, or even write code on our smartphones. Although 99% of UK citizens own a mobile device, smartphones will never replace desktop and laptop computers, mainly because an average computer can run more robust software than smartphones.

Since there aren’t any signs that the PCs are going out of fashion, we’re here to determine how many people own a computer in the UK and see how the computer revolution affected the PC market and the overall industry. 

Before we begin, you should check out these statistics:

Computer ownership statistics in the UK

Suppose you’re wondering how many people own a computer in the UK. In that case, computer ownership statistics show that in 2020, only 24% of all households in the UK with a computing device owned a personal computer. However, numbers show that 19% owned just a portable computer, and only 5% said that they only had a personal computer in their house. 

For comparison sake, smartphone usage statistics show that in 2019, 55.5 million people in the UK were smartphone owners.

 The share of United Kingdom households that own a home computer reached a peak of 88%, in 2018. That being said, the
percentage of UK households with a computer fell drastically from 2018. 

In the same time frame, OS X held slightly above 21% of the UK market. Interestingly enough, one of the leading operating systems, Linux held about 1% of the UK market in August 2022.  

The same study shows that 18% of respondents aged 25-34 have at least one PC in their home. It’s worth mentioning that 25% of survey participants aged 35 have a computer in their household. However, we should also note that 27% of seniors owned a desktop device in the same year. 

In 2019, roughly 4 million people who participated in Statista’s survey said they had obtained a desktop computer 1-2 years before the survey began. Additionally, roughly 14 million Britons claimed that they had purchased a PC sometime in the past. 

In 2019, less than 3 million Britons spent between £700 and £999 on their newest desktop PC. Additionally, roughly 2 million Britons spent less than £150 on their last desktop purchase in 2019. 

Revenue in this market is projected to remain above $10 billion in the next five years. However, the PC market in the UK might see a decline of around 8.4% in 2022.

In 2018, Britons spent more money on desktop purchases. The manufacturer sales of desktop and deskside PCs amounted to £29.17 million in 2018. This sudden drop in sales shows that people prefer to invest in other devices, such as smartphones or laptops. 

Laptop ownership statistics show that 76% of all respondents aged 16+ owned a laptop in 2021. It’s vital to mention that 84% of the survey participants aged 16-24 years claimed their laptop ownership. Based on the same statistics, 62% of seniors aged 55+ had at least one laptop in their household. 

More importantly, laptops generated revenue of $5.57 billion (roughly £4.89 billion) in the UK. Furthermore, UK laptop market share statistics predict that the sales in this PC segment may increase to $6.65 billion (roughly £5.84 billion) in 2026.

Now that you know how many people own laptops in the UK, it’s time to reveal what brands Britons favour the most. In 2020, HP was, again, first in popularity, with 27% of respondents using this brand. Acer was second on the list, with 21% of participants reporting that they have an Acer laptop in their household. There were 19% of Apple users in this group, but it’s worth mentioning that 17% of respondents said that they tend to choose Lenovo over other brands. Moreover, in 2021, the UK manufacturer sales of laptop computers and notebooks reached approximately £145.1 million.

Conclusion 

We hope we answered the question- how many people own a computer in the UK. These statistics show that the computer industry in the UK will thrive in the following years, mainly because people use computers to work and study. Still, we also learned that young adults and Millenials are most likely to own computers and that not all seniors have the need to invest in these devices.