Research carried out by BMRB International found that about half of all people with access to the Internet in the UK, whether at home or the workplace, are using e-mail to chat with friends or colleagues, compared with 34% of Europeans.

Most e-mail usage takes place at work, where more and more white-collar workers have their own e-mail accounts and free access to the Internet.

Shopping: More and more Brits spending online

The findings come two months after another survey found that the UK population is generally distrustful of the Internet with up to two-thirds of those surveyed believing it poses a threat to morality.

In a study of 12,000 people across Europe, BMRB found that Finland's population is most often online with about half having used the Internet, compared with a third in the UK, the Netherlands, the Republic of Ireland and Austria.

Italy has the lowest instance of Internet usage with only 19% of the population currently online.

Penny Sanders, author of the report, said: "The European Internet market is highly diverse.

"Development is broadly speaking more advanced in Scandinavia, where the Internet is becoming part of everyday life at home, as well as at work.

"In the UK we have not reached that stage yet, but the diversity of Internet use here shows that British users are among the most sophisticated in Europe."

E-commerce

While the US leads in investment and development of online shopping, the survey shows that the UK is slowly emerging ahead of its European neighbours with up to 17% of those using the Internet also buying goods online.

Research carried out by a different organisation, Fletcher Research, shows that many UK retailers lack the skills required to push e-commerce.

That research, also released this month, predicts that computer-related purchases, flights, books and music will dominate the UK's online retail market by 2003.

Consumers in Sweden, Spain, Austria and Finland also figure highly in the BMRB survey of online shopping.

While online banking is already well established in Finland, it still has a long way to go in the UK.