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Technology adoption by lower income populations. APHSA-ISM Annual Conference October 8, 2013 Aaron Smith, Senior Researcher Pew Research Center. About Pew Internet. Part of the Pew Research Center, a non-partisan “ fact tank ” in Washington, DC Studies how people use digital technologies
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Technology adoption by lower income populations APHSA-ISM Annual Conference October 8, 2013 Aaron Smith, Senior Researcher Pew Research Center
About Pew Internet • Part of the Pew Research Center, a non-partisan “fact tank” in Washington, DC • Studies how people use digital technologies • Does not promote specific technologies or make policy recommendations • Research is primarily based on nationally representative telephone surveys
What do we mean by “lower income”? • Based on reported annual household income • Categories collected: <10k, 10-20k, 20-30k, 30-40k, 40-50k, 50-75k, 75-100k, 100-150k, and 150k+ • Around 10-20% of respondents typically don’t report (or don’t know) income • Limited ability to subdivide the lower-income population. But it tends to skew towards non-white; youth and seniors; low education; urban/rural
Before we get started • Apologies for making you start your morning with charts… • But you don’t have to write anything down! • Because you can find these slides at pewinternet.org/presentations
National averages • 85% of American adults are internet users • 70% of American adults have some sort of high-speed home internet connection (DSL, cable, FIOS, etc) Which means that… • 15% of Americans do not go online from any device/location (Group 1) • 15% of Americans go online, but do not have broadband at home (Group 2)
1 2 Internet use & broadband by income
In plain English… • Around 1/3 of people making <$20k per year are not online at all. Non-users are heavily dominated by older adults. • Around 1/3 go online, but don’t have broadband at home. • So how is that group accessing online content?
Many of them turn to public institutions like libraries • 32% of lower-income (<$30k per year) Americans have accessed the internet for free from somewhere other than home, school or work in last 12 months • 81% of lower-income Americans say it is “very important”for the library to provide free access to the internet & computers • 35% of lower-income library users have used the internet or a computer at a library in the last 12 months
Cell ownership > internet use +17 +13
…but especially your age Smartphone ownership by age/income grouping
Smartphone ownership over time +14 +23 +23 +14 +10 +23 +20 +25 +8
Impact of smartphones on “broadband” adoption +14 +12 +14
Biggest impact is among young and working-age lower income adults Broadband/smartphone adoption among HH income of <$30k per year +18 +19 +8
Almost everyone texts, apps track with smartphone ownership % of cell owners in each income group who…
Texting and apps by lower-income adults of different age groups Texting/apps use among cell owners with HH income of <$30k per year
Internet use on cell phones % of cell owners in each income group who use the internet/email on their cell phone 45% of cell internet users in this income group go online mostly with their cell phone 27% 39% 30%
Tablets – growing at the low end, but still largely an elite device Tablet ownership by income category
Summary • Huge differences between young and old lower-income adults • Cell phones are common for all income ranges, but smartphones are mainly a young/working age phenomenon • Many lower-income adults (esp. younger ones) are using mobile devices as their primary gateway to online life
Resources 2013 Broadband update: http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/Broadband.aspx 2013 Smartphone update: http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/Smartphone-Ownership-2013.aspx Mobile topics page (running list of latest and greatest): http://pewinternet.org/topics/Mobile.aspx
Aaron Smith Senior Researcher Pew Research Center’s Internet Project asmith@pewresearch.org @pewinternet @pewresearch