More people than ever were regular internet users in west Cumbria in the months leading up to the coronavirus pandemic, new figures show.

As family Zoom calls, home working and internet shopping have become a larger part of the country’s day-to-day lives, more than 49 million people are now online across the UK, with a national rise fuelled by a spike in the number of older people using the web.

In west Cumbria, which includes Millom, Broughton and Ravenglass, 92.8 per cent of adults surveyed by the ONS between January and March 2020 had been online in the previous three months – an estimated 171,000 residents.

That was up from 88.3 per cent ​and in line with the average across the UK, where 92.1 per cent of over-16s regularly use the internet.

It was also the largest proportion reported since records began in 2011, when 75.7 per cent of adults in west Cumbria were regularly on the internet.