According to a report from the U.S. Census Bureau, an estimated 78.1% of people in U.S. households had a high-speed Internet connection last year. However, the Bureau says, digital divides exist among the nation's metropolitan areas and demographic groups.
Although most Americans have access to computers and high-speed Internet, differences in high-speed Internet use were as large as 25 percentage points between certain age and race groups, while divides between specific income and educational attainment groups were as large as 45 percentage points. Among the nation's metro areas, Boulder, CO, had one of the highest rates of high-speed Internet use at 96.9%, while Laredo, TX, had one of the lowest rates at 69.3%.
The report indicates that 75.2% of metropolitan area households reported high-speed Internet use, compared with 63.1% of nonmetropolitan households. In addition, 85.1% of metropolitan households reported owning a computer, compared with 76.5% of nonmetro households.
Computer ownership and Internet use were most common in households with relatively young householders, in Asian and white households, and in households with high incomes and high educational attainment.
The most common household connection type was cable modem (42.8%), followed by mobile broadband (33.1%) and DSL (21.2%). About a quarter of all households had no paid Internet subscription (25.6%). Only 1% of all households reported connecting to the Internet using only a dialup connection.