World Net population nears 300 million

The report also shows that North America has by far the most people with Internet access from a home PC: about 150 million. But the Nielsen report also said European countries, with a combined 82 million people online, is catching up.

The United Kingdom, Germany and Italy are leading the charge among Europeans, who contribute more than half of the European Internet population, according to the Nielsen report.

Of the 20 countries surveyed, the United States has the most wired households, with 136.9 million people over the age of two with Internet access at home.

Japan, with 26.3 million, is a distant second. The United Kingdom is third, Germany is fourth and Canada fifth. At the bottom of the list is Ireland, where 800,000 homes are wired and New Zealand, with 1.3 million.

While the rest of Europe's online community grows, France lags far behind the other major powers in terms of Internet access, the report said.

One reason may be that since the 1980s, the French have been using Minitel, an information network established by the largest French telephone company, said Nielsen director of analytics David Day.

While Day expects French Web use to grow, he said, "We will continue to see growth in online access trailing the rest of Europe."

While it is third from the bottom in terms of home access, Finland is ripe for the picking, Day said. Landline telephones are on the decrease in the Nordic country, while wireless communication is spiking.

Day thinks Finland is well-placed for wireless Internet applications and devices.

Nielsen also found that most Internet users have Web access at home, rather than work. The only exception was Switzerland, where the rate was almost a coin toss, the survey found.

Switzerland does lead in one category measured by the report. Nearly half of those homes wired to the Web access the Internet through more than one PC.