MORE: SOCIAL MEDIA | MOBILE TECHNOLOGY The internet represents a fundamental shift in how Americans connect with one another, gather information and conduct their day-to-day lives. For more than 15 years, Pew Research Center has documented its growth and distribution in the
United States. Explore the patterns of internet and home broadband adoption below. When Pew
Research Center began systematically tracking Americans’ internet usage in early 2000, about half of all adults were already online. Today, 93% of American adults use the internet. For some demographic groups – such as young
adults, college graduates and those from high-income households – internet usage is near ubiquitous. Even so, adoption gaps remain based on factors such as age, income, and education. The proportion of
American adults with high-speed broadband service at home increased rapidly between 2000 and 2010. In recent years, however, broadband adoption growth has been much more sporadic. Today, roughly three-quarters of American adults have broadband internet service at home. As is true of internet adoption more broadly, home broadband adoption varies across demographic groups. Racial minorities and those with lower levels of education and income are less likely to have broadband service at home. There has been a steady decline of those who use smartphones as their primary
means of online access at home in recent years. Today, 15% of American adults are “smartphone-only” internet users – meaning they own a smartphone, but do not have traditional home broadband service.Internet use over time
Who uses the internet
Home broadband use over time
Who has home broadband
Smartphone dependency over time
Who is smartphone dependent
Reliance on smartphones for online access is especially common among younger adults, lower-income Americans and those with a high school education or less.
Find out more
Find more in-depth explorations of internet and home broadband patterns in the U.S. by following the links below.
7% of Americans don’t use the internet. Who are they? April 2,
2021
Mobile Technology and Home Broadband 2021 June 3,
2021
Digital divide persists even as Americans with lower incomes make gains in tech adoption June 22, 2021
Home broadband adoption, computer
ownership vary by race, ethnicity in the U.S. July 16, 2021
Home digital divides persist between rural, urban and suburban America August 19,
2021
Americans with disabilities less likely than those without to own some digital devices September 10, 2021
All reports and blog posts related to internet access.
What is the digital divide?
The digital divide is a term that refers to the gap between demographics and regions that have access to modern information and communications technology (ICT), and those that don't or have restricted access. This technology can include the telephone, television, personal computers and internet connectivity.
What are the origins of the digital divide?
Well before the late 20th century, the digital divide referred chiefly to the division between those with and without telephone access. After the late 1990s, the term began to be used mainly to describe the split between those with and without internet access, however, particularly broadband.
The digital divide typically exists between those in urban areas and those in rural areas; between the educated and the uneducated; between socioeconomic groups; and, globally, between the more and less industrially developing countries.
Even among populations with some access to technology, the digital divide can be evident in the form of lower-performance computers, lower-speed wireless connections, lower-priced internet use connections such as dial-up and limited access to subscription-based content.
What is the digital divide today?
According to studies and reports, the digital divide is still very much a reality today. According to a 2019 report, approximately 5 million rural American households and 15.3 million urban or metro areas still don't access broadband internet.
Meanwhile, a study by the Pew Research Center noted that 24% of adults with household incomes below $30,000 a year don't own a smartphone and 40% of those with lower incomes don't have home broadband services or a computer.
Globally, the digital divide in developing countries includes a lack of access to digital technology and internet service. It can also include a lack of accessibility to modern, high-quality new technologies such as mobile phones and Wi-Fi access.
Additionally, there is significant inequality across the globe in telecommunication bandwidth. For example, Venezuela and Paraguay feature some of the lowest digital access speeds followed by Egypt, Yemen and Gabon.
Bridging the digital divide
Proponents for bridging the digital divide include those who argue it would improve digital literacy, digital skills democracy, social mobility, economic equality and economic growth.
The United Nations, for example, has helped to raise awareness regarding the global digital divide through the yearly celebration of World Information Society Day. It has also created the Information and Communication Technologies Task Force in an effort to bridge the global digital divide.
However, overcoming the digital divide has not gotten easier, particularly in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A 2020 McKinsey report stated that learning loss will only increase as educators and students have taken to remote learning and internet usage from home is required by low-income families who may not have access to the right technology.
The reality of a separate-access marketplace is problematic because of the rise of services such as video on demand, video conferencing and virtual classrooms, which require access to the high-speed internet connections that those on the less-served side of the digital divide cannot access and/or afford.
To combat this, some nonprofit groups have taken to providing internet access and laptops to school districts and areas with internet users of a lower-income level.
This was last updated in August 2021
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