City of New York Internet Access: Is it Worse than Natiional Averages?

“Lies, damn lies and statistics” is the quip once made by Samuel Clemens, the author otherwise known as Mark Twain about statistics and their relationship to “truth.” It is worth keeping in mind. 

Consider statistics cited by the City of New York about residents who do not buy internet access.

As many as 917,239 New York City households, or 29 percent of all households, “are without broadband internet access,” a report by the city of New York indicates. The phrase is meant to indicate that this percentage of households do not buy fixed network internet access, not to describe the availability of internet access to those households. 

Either meaning would be surprising to many, especially when compared with other coastal cities such as Seattle, where the lowest percentage of homes buying fixed network internet access is 93 percent, and the “average” buy rate is about 96 percent.

Keep in mind that nationally, U.S. household purchasing of fixed network internet access internet access is about 77 percent, according to the Pew Research Center. If that seems low, consider that between 17 percent and 20 percent of U.S. households are “mobile-only” for internet access. In that context, the 71 percent buy rate claimed for New York City is roughly in line with national figures. 

Actually, the New York figures arguably are close to U.S. national averages. According to the Pew Research Center, 17 percent of U.S. households are mobile only for internet access, including 23 percent of black households and 25 percent of Hispanic households. 

The New York study claims 30 percent of Hispanic and black New Yorkers do not buy fixed network internet access.

According to Pew, some 26 percent of U.S. households with household income of less than $30,000 are mobile-only and not buy fixed network internet access. 

The New York City study says “44 percent of New Yorkers in poverty” do not buy fixed network internet access. Two caveats: persons are not households, and fixed network internet access is purchased “by the household.” 

Also, keep in mind that New York uses a different definition of poverty, setting the benchmark higher at $33,600 per household. The New York definition is about 12 percent higher than the U.S. federal government definition. 

In other words, New York buying rates for lower-income households are roughly in line with national averages, when considering the different definitions. The Pew data is based on households. 

The New York City study sometimes uses “persons” as the unit of analysis. But 44 percent of people, using the 2.4 persons-per-household metric, yields a non-buy rate of about 18 percent for homes in poverty. Again, in line with U.S. national averages. 

Likewise, about 26 percent of U.S. households not buying fixed network internet access are headed by people with a high school diploma or less are mobile-only for internet access, according to Pew. 

The New York City study says 33 percent of New Yorkers who are high school graduates do not buy fixed network internet access. That might represent about 14 percent of households. 

Of households headed by someone with less than a high school degree, about 41 percent of people do not purchase fixed network internet access. That might represent about 17 percent of households. 

If the populations represented by high school graduates and less-than-high-school persons are exclusive of each other, then possibly 31 percent of New York City households headed by someone with a high school degree or less. 

The point is that people and households living in New York City do not buy fixed network internet access at rates that are roughly in line with U.S. national averages.