Age, Race, Education and the Internet

Age. As in 1994, those furthest behind the national average for telephone penetration are the youngest (under 25 years) at 84.4% (Chart 6). Young households in rural areas are even less likely to have a telephone (81.7%). Seniors (55 years and older), by contrast, account for the highest telephone penetration (96.1%), particularly in rural areas (96.7%). With respect to computer penetration, as in 1994, seniors account for the lowest age category (21.0% for PCs, 8.8% for on-line access), followed by the young (28.0% for PCs,17.1% for on-line access) (Charts 16, 22). Those households most likely to own a PC are in the 35-44-year-old bracket (49%).

Race. There is still a significant divide among racial groups in telephone penetration. Overall, White households have a far higher telephone penetration rate (95.9%) than Black (86%) or Hispanic (86.5%) households (Chart 4). This divide is particularly pronounced at incomes below $15,000: 90.3% for Whites, 76.3% for Blacks, and 78.4 % for Hispanics. "Other non-Hispanic" households have an overall telephone penetration rate (92.7%) close to the national average (93.8%), but the rate for this group in rural areas is significantly lower than average (82.8%).(2)

The divide among races is even more striking for PC ownership and on-line access. While the ownership of PCs have grown most significantly for minority groups since 1994, Blacks and Hispanics still lag far behind the national average (Chart 12). White households are still more than twice as likely (40.8%) to own a computer than Black (19.3%) or Hispanic (19.4%) households.(3) This divide is apparent across all income levels: even at incomes higher than $75,000, Whites are more likely to have PCs (76.3%) than are Blacks (64.1%) (Chart 13). Similarly, the rates for on-line access are nearly three times as high for Whites (21.2%) as for Blacks (7.7%) or Hispanics (8.7%).

Significantly, the digital divide between racial groups in PC-ownership has increased since 1994 (Chart 14). In 1997, the difference in PC-ownership levels between White and Black households was 21.5 percentage points, up from 16.8 percentage points in 1994. Similarly, the gap in PC-ownership rates between White and Hispanic households in 1997 has increased to 21.4 percentage points, up from 14.8 percentage points in 1994. This gap has increased at almost all income levels, including at incomes above $75,000, where some might have expected computer-ownership rates to converge (Chart 15).

Education. The level of education affects the penetration rates much as income does: generally, the greater one's education, the greater the likelihood that person has a phone, PC, or modem. Those with college degrees are far more likely than those without any high school education to have telephone service (97.6% vs. 87.8%) (Chart 7). The comparison is even more striking with respect to PC ownership: those with a college education are almost ten times as likely to own a computer as those without any high school (63.2% vs. 6.8%) (Chart 17). This difference in PC-ownership is even more distinct in rural areas: 64.7% versus 5.3%. Most striking are the differences in on-line access among those with a college degree (38.4%), those with a high school diploma (9.6%), and those without any high school education (1.8%) (Chart 23).

Last Updated: March 3, 2006 © 2000 UCLA GeroNet