An Oxford University study shows the extent to which online news services have gained over print.

Even over-55s in an online survey across nine countries preferred online sites over printed newspapers as their source for news, as did all other age groups.

The findings are a sharp reminder of the rate at which reading habits are changing. The survey of 10,843 individuals in The UK, USA, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain and urban parts of Brazil found that a majority of consumers in every age group said online media were their main source for news. The study was conducted by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University.

Institute director David Levy says that – because the survey was conducted only online – results “will underrepresent the consumption habits of people who are not online”.

Offline individuals were typically “older, less affluent and with limited formal education”.

“Despite this limitation, the findings demonstrate a consistent and unmistakable generational divide in media consumption in all of the countries surveyed,” he says.