Broadband adoption rates and gaps in US metropolitan areas

Until now, public, private, and civic leaders have frequently concentrated on broadband adoption at a national or international scale, looking at how rates vary across large segments of the population. However, new survey questions from the US Census Bureau enable analysis at the metropolitan scale, creating new ways to measure and understand where America falls short in getting people online. This brief uses 2013 and 2014 American Community Survey data to track current and changing broadband adoption rates at the metropolitan scale, while using a combination of other Census and Internet speed data to model what factors affect metropolitan adoption rates. In turn, the results of this analysis have clear implications for efforts to address the significant gaps in American Internet adoption. Among the findings:

• While 75.1 percent of American households had a broadband Internet subscription in 2014, there is enormous variation in US digital connectivity across demographic groups and between metropolitan areas.
• Multiple factors -- including higher levels of income, educational attainment, and telecommuting -- all have a positive and significant effect on broadband adoption rates in metropolitan America.
• From 2013 to 2014, the share of households with a broadband Internet subscription rose by 1.7 percentage points nationally, including a statistically significant increase among 58 of the country’s 100 largest metropolitan areas.