An estimated 77% of UK adults ages 16 and older, or 38.3 million people, use the internet regularly in 2010, according to recent data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS). More than 30 million individuals now go online every day, or almost every day, and 73% of all households have web access.

Most members of the online family in the UK are doing well, using internet services more and also developing new habits as innovative options emerge.

For example, email is not only alive but thriving, used by an estimated 90% of the UK internet population. Finding information on goods and services was the second most popular activity (75%), followed by travel and accommodation services (63%). More than half of web-enabled adults said they banked online; 51% said they accessed news or magazine content.

E-commerce is going strong too. An estimated 31 million shoppers paid for something on the web in the 12 months prior to polling, said the ONS. More than half (52%) purchased clothes, while 47% bought films and music online; 24% had bought groceries and food.

At the same time, mobile web use is up sharply. Some 31% of web users said they went online via mobile phone in 2010, compared to 23% in 2009.  Among younger users (ages 16 to 24), an estimated 44% browse the internet on their phones. In addition, researchers reported, 2.7 million people used wireless hot-spots in early 2010.

TV is a big draw, with roughly 17 million people streaming television content from the web. Men were more than twice as likely to do this—perhaps because they are more likely to seek out snippets of news, sports or financial coverage during the day. Or perhaps women make more effort to watch when their favorite programs are broadcast. Whatever the reason, the ONS found that 52% of male web users had used video-on-demand services like the BBC iPlayer and Channel 4′s 4oD, compared to 23% of women.

So online merchants, mobile operators, broadcasters and video content owners are among the parties best pleased by these statistics. Advertisers and marketers will be happy too, as the heavy usage and significant spending power of their online audiences are confirmed once more. Among individuals with incomes of £41,600 ($65,300) and over, an estimated 98% are internet users.

Yet some results make discouraging reading for those in the government and the services sector who hope to shift more operations to digital channels. While internet use is virtually universal among adults ages 16 to 24, for example, the opposite end of the age spectrum is still poorly represented. Three-fifths of people 65 and older have never gone online, the ONS estimated. This may persuade the Conservative-Liberal coalition that spending on internet delivery of social services such as pensions advice is not warranted, especially when widespread cuts to IT budgets are looming.

Most UK merchants expect mobile commerce to be part of their main strategy within the next 12 months, and more than 40% plan to have a transactional mobile site or application within the next year, according to a survey carried out by eDigital Research for the Association for Interactive Media and Entertainment (AIME), the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) and the Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG).

Researchers asked 140 marketers associated with retail, advertising or mobile services about their attitudes to mobile commerce. Of the senior-level representatives from UK retail brands, 94% said they considered m-commerce a significant business opportunity, and 59% said they expected their mobile revenues to increase over the next 12 months.

Current m-commerce revenues in the UK are relatively small; 63% of merchants polled by eDigital Research said they made less than 1% of their total revenues from mobile, or did not even measure income from the mobile channel. But retailers are beginning to recognize the emerging demand for mobile shopping. According to comScore and the GSMA, 4.2 million UK consumers per month are using the mobile internet to visit retailers’ websites.  Moreover, Brandbank’s “2010 mCommerce Content Report” noted that growing numbers of UK smartphone users are engaged in shopping behavior on their handsets; just 19% of smartphone owners surveyed in May 2010 said they did not use their mobile phone to help them shop.

Retailers will also be encouraged by recent growth in UK e-commerce overall. Online spending by UK consumers reached £5 billion ($7.9 billion) in July 2010, according to the IMRG and Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index. That marked a 14% rise on June 2010 and an 18% increase on July 2009—as well as the highest leap in ecommerce spending since 2007.  Average spend per person was £81 ($127).

All market sectors recorded higher sales in July 2010 than in July 2009, the index reported. Wet weather at the end of the month contributed to internet sales by keeping many shoppers indoors. Rain also drove visits and purchases at travel websites as consumers arranged escapes to sunnier destinations. Many travel operators had pushed their prices to rock-bottom, too, because the recession and flagging consumer confidence left many flights and package holidays unsold at the start of the summer.

As someone who follows demographics, I usually enjoy reading new research about the different generations. Right now, I’m researching my next report on millennials, also called Gen Y or—less often these days—echo boomers. The real name for this generation should be what every research firm calls them: Digital Natives.

What makes them so interesting to me is the incredible influence they have on the technologies and applications we use, with MySpace and Facebook as the easiest examples. Millennials (now about 18 to 32) were all over MySpace back in 2006 and 2007. Then Facebook arrived and created a tsunami of social networkers. In 2010, we are now reading that the kids may be leaving Facebook because friending parents and grandparents is just not cool.

Which brings me to some research from Nielsen that popped up recently on baby boomers vs. millennials. It’s another attempt to show marketers that the boomers really aren’t tightwad technophobes. In fact, it makes the point that the top five websites boomers visit are nearly identical to the top five sites for millennials. Only the order is slightly different.

I was interviewed about boomers and their use of technology on CNBC’s “Tom Brokaw Reports: Boomer$!” back in March. Having just written three eMarketer reports on boomers’ behavior online, it was easy to note that boomers see the internet as another tool to help them live their lives better while connecting with family, friends and colleagues of all ages—even if the buttons on their devices seem to get smaller every year.

The point I think that marketers miss when they talk only about generations is that all individuals are at different life stages—which has a more profound effect on what they need and what they desire than their supposed affiliation with an epithet like millennials, or Gen Y or echo boomers. Some young people are already planning their retirement, while some new empty-nesters are shopping for cars and homes that fit their new lifestyle. Many young people are still aspiring to own their first smartphone, right after they land their first job. Many boomers own smartphones so they can check their email or their social network profile.

No one fits neatly into a name, for long. It will be interesting to see what the digital natives flock to after Facebook—no matter what their age.