WASHINGTON — More proof of the skyrocketing popularity of the Internet: 42 percent of U.S. households could log on to the Web in 2000, up from 18 percent three years earlier, the Census Bureau found.

        More children than ever before are growing up in homes with computers, according to the census report to be released today. Almost two-thirds of all children between ages 3 and 17 lived in homes with computers, and almost one-third in that age range have gone online.

        The capability to e-mail and send instant messages has made Internet access a “must-have” for many Americans, said Suzanna Fox, research director for the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

        “E-mailing and instant messaging ... have been woven into Americans' social lives,” said Ms. Fox, whose nonprofit group tracks Internet usage and habits.

        Almost one-third of all adults 18 and older and one-fifth of all children 3 to 17 use e-mail, the census survey found.

        That need for instant communication, along with a decline in prices, contributed to the growing number of homes with computers, analysts said. More than half the country's 105 million households had computers, the first time that percentage has been over 50 percent since the bureau started keeping track of such figures in 1984.

        “Having a computer is no longer an oddity,” bureau analyst Eric Newburger said.

        Gaps still existed among different socioeconomic groups. Older Americans and families with smaller incomes were less likely to have computers.

        Among children, however, that gap was erased by the availability of computers in most schools. Almost 90 percent of all school-age kids — age 6 to 17 — had access to computers either at home or at school.

        The census figures are from a survey taken in August 2000 separate from last year's head count. The bureau began tracking households with computers in 1984, and started tracking Internet use in 1997.

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