Back to School: A Look at the Internet Access Gap

More than one in five low-income households did not have any access to the internet in 2018, more than four times the rate of all other households. A staggering 43.7 percent of low-income households lacked access to personal high-speed internet at home, more than double that of the rest of the population.  Our analysis of data from the American Community Survey (ACS) shows that immigrant communities are also heavily affected. More than 5.2 million immigrant households, almost three out of 10, lacked access to personal broadband internet access at home in 2018. This includes 2.2 million households with no internet access and an additional 3 million households accessing the internet only by cell phone or dial-up connection. Unsurprisingly, low-income immigrant households were even more likely to lack access, with 41.9 percent of low-income immigrant households having no personal high-speed internet connection at home.