Americans' Internet Access: 2000-2015

The Pew Research Center’s unit studying the Internet and society began systematically measuring Internet adoption among Americans in 2000. Since then, Pew Research has conducted 97 national surveys of adults that have documented how the internet has become an integral part of everyday life across diverse parts of society. For young adults, Americans with high education levels, and those in relatively affluent households, Internet penetration nears full saturation levels. The report finds that, in 2000, 70 percent of those ages 18-29 used the Internet, and that figure has steadily grown to 96 percent in 2015. In contrast, 14 percent of seniors used the internet in 2000, while 58 percent do so today. In addition, almost all adults (95 percent) with a college or graduate degree say they are internet users, and 97 percent of those who live in households earning more than $75,000 are also online. “There are two broad trends in these data,” says Maeve Duggan, Research Associate at Pew Research Center. “The first is that the groups traditionally leading the way in tech adoption -- the young, highly educated and relatively well off – are now nearly all Internet users. The second is that groups traditionally less likely to be early adopters have steadily increased their Internet use. Especially in recent years, the rate of adoption has been particularly rapid. However, digital differences still remain.” Other findings include:

• African-Americans and Hispanics have been somewhat less likely than whites or English-speaking Asian-Americans to be internet users. Today, 78 percent of blacks and 81 percent of Hispanics use the Internet, compared with 85 percent of whites and 97 percent of English-speaking Asian Americans.
• Men and women have had rough parity in Internet adoption since 2000. Today, 85 percent of men and 84 percent of women report being Internet users.
• Those who live in rural areas are less likely than those in the suburbs and urban areas to use the Internet. In 2000, 56 percent of suburban residents, 53 percent of urban residents and 42 percent of rural residents were Internet users. Today those figures stand at 85 percent, 85 percent and 78 percent respectively.