Home broadband usage, non-usage

gregh — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 23:51:54 -0500

The Pew Internet & American Life Project today released their Home Broadband Adoption 2007 report. It's an interesting read for the details of broadband adoption (not great) and, also, an idea of Internet usage by American adults (a bit surprising.) It's easy to come to the conclusion that everyone uses the Internet. That is nowhere near the truth.

Some interest tidbits:

Slightly less than half of American adults have home broadband.
29% of American adults do not use the Internet. For some reason, that astounds me. 27% don't use the Internet because they don't use a computer at home, work, or school.
Limited rural penetration means limited rural adoption. Home broadband adoption in rural areas is 31%.
90% of home dialup users don't ever read or send email. I find that astonishing. 5% of home broadband users don't. I don't know why that smaller small number makes more sense to me.

It's an interesting study to at least skim. The table of page 11 that lays out the uses people make of the Internet is probably the most interesting bit of the report.

Otherwise Occupied - dialup

Home broadband usage, non-usage