Digital Access in California

Digital access is at an all-time high in California—but progress has slowed since the early days of the pandemic.

• A record-high 96 percent of Californians had access to internet—including satellite—at home in 2023, the year of most recent data. This is up from 92 percent in 2019. Access increased most among historically marginalized communities: 95 percent of Black households had internet, up from 88 percent in 2019; increases were similar among Latino, low-income, and rural households, as well as households headed by non–college graduates.
• A lower share of California households have broadband/high-speed internet access (84 percent, the same as it had been in 2019), and the variation between race/ethnic, socioeconomic, and geographic groups is greater. Black (83 percent), Latino (80 percent), and low-income (77 percent) households have the lowest levels of high-speed access, and each saw only small increases of 1 or 2 percentage points since 2019.
• The share of California households with a desktop, laptop, or other device (not counting mobile phones) increased by 2 percentage points, from 87 percent in 2019 to 89 percent in 2023. Device access increased between 4 to 6 percentage points among Black, Latino, and low-income households. Despite widespread distribution of devices in schools during the pandemic, households with school-aged children saw only a modest increase in access, from 93 percent to 94 percent.