Internet, broadband, and cell phone statistics

In a national survey between November 30 and December 27, 2009, Pew finds:

1) 74% of American adults (ages 18 and older) use the Internet -- a slight drop from Pew's survey in April 2009, which did not include Spanish interviews. At that time Pew found that 79% of English-speaking adults use the Internet.

Since 2006, the number of American adults using the Internet has leveled.

2) 60% of American adults use broadband connections at home - a drop that is within the margin of error from 63% in April 2009.

3) 55% of American adults connect to the Internet wirelessly, either through a WiFi or WiMax connection via their laptops or through their handheld device like a smart phone. This figure did not change in a statistically significant way during 2009.

"The Internet, it's pretty clear, is a saturated market," Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project, said. The lack of growth in broadband use at home may relate to economic stress, "with people not renewing their contracts, scaling back, or not venturing into this area," Rainie said. He predicted growth in broadband use given the injection of funding aimed at spurring broadband access and adoption as part of the federal economic stimulus package passed last February.