More than 80% of Americans now have a computer in their homes, and of those, almost 92% have internet access, up from 77.9% one year earlier.
According to a study on home internet access from The Nielsen Company, US internet access is correlated with education level and a household’s combined annual income. As these factors increase, so does the likelihood of internet access.
Internet access is lowest in Hispanic and African-American households, as well as those where the head of household has not completed high school.
Access is much lower in rural areas and in homes that receive only broadcast TV.
Those using dial-up service tend be older, with more modest incomes and lower education levels than those using high-speed internet.
Steve McGowan, SVP of insights and client research initiatives at Nielsen, said: “Our findings indicate that there remains opportunity for growth in internet access in the US. Indeed, President Obama stated during the campaign that we had to view broadband internet access the same way we did telephone service and electricity – an essential utility available to all regardless of economic status.
“But part of the challenge in extending web access to all Americans is the fact that there are more homes without computers, than there are homes with computers but lacking internet access.”
eMarketer recently revealed that more than 17 million households in the UK, or 67.2% of the total, will subscribe to broadband technologies in 2009 (see Boost in UK broadband use).
This figure is an increase of almost 6.5% from the 16.1 million households using broadband in 2008.
eMarketer has also predicted that there will be more than 20 million men online in the UK in 2009 – 51% of the UK internet user population (see Men to make up 51% of UK internet population in 2009).
