Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City

The Missouri House of Representatives’ Special Interim Committee on Broadband Development is working to develop a better understanding of broadband’s role across multiple aspects of everyday living, including education, entrepreneurship and economic development, government services, precision agriculture and telemedicine. The committee asked, can we measure the extent to which affordable broadband improves educational outcomes, labor market participation, or population growth? Fortunately, researchers constantly are adding to our collective knowledge. The following data measures:

The Kansas City Fed launched a project in early 2018 to outline issues of the digital divide and identify innovative approaches that communities were taking to narrow it. This report provides a summary of what we learned and opportunities for narrowing the divide. It is not intended to be a technical report.