Record shares of Americans now own smartphones, have home broadband

Nearly nine-in-ten Americans today are online, up from about half in the early 2000s. Pew Research Center has chronicled this trend and others through more than 15 years of surveys on internet and technology use. A new set of fact sheets that will be updated as we collect new data and can serve as a one-stop shop for anyone looking for information on key trends in digital technology. To mark the occasion, here are four key trends illustrating the current technology landscape in the US:
Roughly three-quarters of Americans (77%) now own a smartphone, with lower-income Americans and those ages 50 and older exhibiting a sharp uptick in ownership over the past year.
After a modest decline between 2013 and 2015, the share of Americans with broadband service at home increased by 6 percentage points in 2016. As of November 2016, nearly three-quarters (73%) of Americans indicate that they have broadband service at home.
Nearly seven-in-ten Americans now use social media.
Half the public now owns a tablet computer.