Income disparities holding back US Internet adoption

New Census data from the 2014 American Community Survey reveal how uneven broadband adoption remains throughout the country. While several factors can weigh positively or negatively on adoption, including commute patterns and levels of educational attainment, income has perhaps the biggest effect.

Nationally, most households (75.1 percent) had a broadband internet subscription in 2014, but the gap between lower-income and higher-income households remains large. For example, 92.1 percent of households earning $75,000 or more annually had a broadband subscription, almost double that of households earning under $10,000 each year (46.3 percent). Adoption rates among households with incomes between $10,000 and $35,000 were also similarly low by comparison. These disparities aren’t going away, either. While many public and civic leaders focus on expanding access to fiber-speed internet—a necessary step in itself—they shouldn’t overlook the need to address adoption gaps. Nationally, a reformed version of the Federal Communication Commission’s Lifeline program could help, but incorporating broadband into its purview remains a work in progress. Since internet regulation is highly variable across the country, state and local leaders must tackle this challenge with programs targeted to their markets. Incentivizing physical roll-out in low-income neighborhoods and creating digital skills curricula are some of the promising options, and markets can follow the lead from innovators like Minnesota, Seattle, and elsewhere. Ultimately, collaborative strategies at all levels of the public and private sector—and across all geographies—are crucial to expand the reach of the country’s digital information networks. If the country wants to repeat the shared economic prosperity of the 20th century as we advance further in the 21st, we don’t really have a choice.