US Online Population and Demographics

The USA's online population continues to grow steadily, while broadband use grows rapidly, according to latest figures from The Harris Poll(r). Around 69% of adults are now online: of these, almost 90% have home access and more than one third now have some form of broadband connection.

Harris Interactive(r) found that 69% of adults are now online (October / December 2003), up from 67% in late 2002, 64% in late 2001, 63% in 2000, 56% in 1999 and only 9% when tracking began in 1995.

The percentage who access the Internet from a location other than home and work is actually declining, from a peak of 20% in April 2001 to only 16% now. In 1998 the % accessing from work and home was roughly the same - but the % accessing from home rocketed in the year 2000 to approximately twice the % accessing from work, and has remained at about that ratio.

There has been a big increase in those with broadband connections. Less than two years ago, only 22% of adults online had broadband connections (including ISDN, cable, ADSL/DSC, T1 and T3 lines). This rose to 27% in November / December 2002 and is now 37% of all those online (see table below for other connection types. Note that a quarter of respondents are not sure of their connection type!).

As Internet penetration rises, the demographic profile of Internet users looks more like that of the US as a whole. It is still true that more young than older people, and more affluent than low-income people, are online. But 7% of those online are now over 65 (compared to 15% of all adults who are over 65), 40% of those online (compared to 47% of all adults) did not go to college and 15% have incomes of less than $25,000 (compared to 19% of adults).

TYPE OF INTERNET CONNECTION
'What type of Internet connection do you have for your home computer or other primary computer?"

Base: Adults online
	February/ March 2002	November/ December 2002	October/ December 2003
	%	%	%
14.4k modem	1	2	2
28.8k modem	4	5	4
33.6k modem	2	2	2
56k modem	39	29	20
ISDN line	1	1	1
Cable modem	13	14	21
ADSL/DSL	7	11	14
1 or T3 line	1	1	2
Other	4	6	6
Not sure	27	27	25
Decline to answer	1	2	2
TOTAL BROADBAND*	22%	27%	37%
*Includes ISDN, cable, ADSL/DSL, T1 or T3 lines.

The Harris Poll(r) conducted 2,033 interviews with adults (aged18+) by telephone within the USA during October and December 2003.

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.

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