Some 20 percent of U.S. adults do not buy Internet access services or use the Internet, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project.
Senior citizens, Spanish speakers, adults with less than a high school education, and those living in households earning less than $30,000 per year are the least likely adults to have Internet access.
The main reason they don’t go online is because they don’t think the Internet is relevant to them. Most have never used the Internet before, and don’t have anyone in their household who does use the Internet.
About 10 percent of the non-users indicated they were interested in using the Internet or email in the future.
But there have been big changes over the last decade. Internet access is no longer synonymous with going online with a desktop computer. About 63 percent of U.S. adults use wireless Internet access from a mobile device, notebook PC, tablet or e-book reader.
Perhaps more significantly, mobile Internet access has been a key enabler of Internet usage by users who traditionally have used the Internet less than average, Pew researchers say.
Among smartphone owners, young adults, minorities, those with no college experience, and those with lower household income levels are more likely than other groups to say that their phone is their main source of Internet access. Nor is there a racial divide, Pew reports. Both African Americans and English-speaking Latinos are as likely as “white” American adults to own any sort of mobile phone, and are more likely to use their phones for a wider range of activities.
For some, the key finding is that broadband adoption, at least using fixed line facilities, has peaked. In fact, buying of fixed network broadband connections has gone negative since 2010. The reasons why that might have happened aren’t completely clear, though most observers might suggest people now are substituting wireless service for fixed network service, or disconnecting for financial reasons.
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