NTIA survey finds 60% of unconnected households report that they have no need/interest in using the internet at home
Over the past several decades, the U.S. Census Bureau or other agencies have been asking Americans about their use of computers and the internet. Broadband access and usage has increasingly come to represent full participation in the modern economy, from entertainment to shopping to paying bills and accessing healthcare and education. Federal and state governments have made it an infrastructure priority to connect the unconnected and close that “digital divide” between those who have access to broadband service and those who do not.
But a recent analysis of data from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s Internet Use Survey shows that a significant majority—58%—of an estimated 24 million offline households, report that their main reason for not using the internet at home is that they have no need or interest in doing so. The respondent with this point of view was likely to be around 60 years old and white, with no postsecondary education.
Image: NTIA
Another 18% of respondents representing about 4 million households said that internet service is too expensive. Those respondents tended to be younger, were more likely to be a racial or ethnic minority and were more likely to have school-aged children than those who simply weren’t interested in getting online. Both those who worried about cost and those who expressed no interest in the internet were likely to have lower household income than connected households.
NTIA also noted that as of 2021, there are about 18% of offline households that say they are offline for a range of less-common reasons: Privacy and security concerns, because they have moved or because they use the internet outside their home.
Another interesting data point is that even as network operators work to expand their service footprint, the percentage of people reporting that they weren’t online because service was not available crept up slightly to about 4%. “One possible explanation for this shift could be the changing demographics of offline households as the online population continues to increase,” NTIA said. Another possibility is that bandwidth needs and expectations for what might qualify as acceptable high-speed Internet service have changed over time. …
“These results suggest that multiple strategies are necessary to stimulate greater adoption of the Internet, including subsidy programs such as the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), the Digital Equity Act, and other initiatives to increase digital skills, equip people with suitable devices, and ensure important online services are accessible to all,” NTIA concluded in a recent blog post about the data.
