Date: Apr 13, 2012 10:32 AM
Subject: New Pew Internet report on digital differences
To: "<email obscured>" <<email obscured>>
Dear Steve,
Today we released a new report, Digital differences, that takes a look at
differences in digital access across different demographic groups. It is
available for immediate release on our website:
http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2012/Digital-differences.aspx
A few of the main findings include:
One in five American adults does not use the internet. Senior
citizens, those who prefer to take our interviews in Spanish rather than
English, adults with less than a high school education, and those living in
households earning less than $30,000 per year are the least likely adults
to have internet access.
Among adults who do not use the internet, almost half have told
us that the main reason they dont go online is because they dont think
the internet is relevant to them. Most have never used the internet before,
and dont have anyone in their household who does.
The 27% of adults living with disability in the U.S. today are
significantly less likely than adults without a disability to go online
(54% vs. 81%). Furthermore, 2% of adults have a disability or illness that
makes it more difficult or impossible for them to use the internet at all.
Mobile is also an important part of the evolving story of digital access:
88% of American adults have a cell phone, 57% have a laptop, 19%
own an e-book reader, and 19% have a tablet computer; about six in ten
adults (63%) go online wirelessly with one of those devices. Gadget
ownership is generally correlated with age, education, and household
income, although some devicesnotably e-book readers and tabletsare as
popular or even more popular with adults in their thirties and forties than
young adults ages 18-29.
The rise of mobile is changing the story. Groups that have
traditionally been on the other side of the digital divide in basic
internet access are using wireless connections to go online. Among
smartphone owners, young adults, minorities, those with no college
experience, and those with lower household income levels are more likely
than other groups to say that their phone is their main source of internet
access.
Our director, Lee Rainie, also has a presentation up (Digital differences
and money) that pulls together information about other digital differences
among income groups, age groups, racial and ethnic groups, and among people
with different levels of educational attainment.
A note on the methodology: The primary recent data in the report are from a
Pew Internet Project tracking survey. The survey was fielded from July
25-August 26, 2011, and was administered by landline and cell phone, in
English and Spanish, to 2,260 adults age 18 and older. The margin of error
for the full sample is 2 percentage points. (The data sets from this
survey are available on our website.)
Please let me know if you have any questions!
Thanks,
Kathryn
Kathryn Zickuhr
Research Specialist
Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project
1615 L Street, NW
Suite 700
Washington, DC 20036
(202) 419-4518
<email obscured>
http://twitter.com/kzickuhr