[qi:046] We don’t quite need the U.S. Census to tell us that most (but not all) people love the Internet. Breakneck growth in the number of broadband connections, growing sales of cheap computers, and our growing reliance on modern communication tools, such as email, instant messages and Facebook, have become so pervasive that even the homeless need to be connected. That reliance has increased over the past 12 years, as shown by 2007 U.S. Census data. Here are some of the highlights from that data (which is now about 2 years old).
- 64 percent of people over 18 used the Internet in 2007 vs. 22 percent in 1997.
- 62 percent of households used the Internet at home in 2007 vs. 18 percent in 1997.
- 50.8 percent of households accessed the Internet at home over a broadband connection. Dial-up access had 10.7 percent of households.
- Alaska and New Hampshire residents had among the highest rates of Internet use from any location (home, work or public access).
- There were 38.3 percent households with no Internet use at home.
These stats, while 2 years old, are a good mile-marker that explains why we are still continuing to see growth in services such as Skype, Facebook, Twitter and Google. I wonder what the next census will look like? With 4G wireless broadband around the corner, will we even bother to ask the question: Internet access from home? More importantly, will there be anyone still dialing up for Internet access? 🙂
| Year | Households | Household with computer at home | Household with Internet use at home |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | 117,840 | (x)1 | 61.7 |
| 2003 | 113,126 | 61.8 | 54.7 |
| 2001 | 109,106 | 56.3 | 50.4 |
| 2000 | 105,247 | 51.0 | 41.5 |
| 1997 | 102,158 | 36.6 | 18.0 |
| 1993 | 98,736 | 22.9 | (x)2 |
| 1989 | 94,061 | 15.0 | (x) |
| 1984 | 87,073 | 8.2 | (x) |
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, November 1984, 1989, 1993, 1997, 2000, 2001, 2003. Internet Release date: June 2009.
1. In 2007 respondents were not asked any questions about computer access or ownership. Additonally, question wording regarding both computer use and Internet access have differered from year to year.
2. In 1984, 1989, and 1993, respondents were not asked any questions about the Internet.
3. The householder refers to the person (or one of the persons) in whose name the housing unit is owned or rented (maintained) or, if there is no such person, any adult member, excluding roomers, boarders, or paid employees. If the house is owned or rented jointly by a married couple, the householder may be either the husband or the wife. The person designated as the householder is the “reference person” to whom the relationship of all other household members, if any, is recorded.
There is one problem that people will not understand. In a year or two all of rural America will be on broadband or they wouldn’t have communication at all. There wouldn’t be landlines in rural America as broadband is being put in very fast as President Obama stated in his speech on security. The only way that communication will be by VoIP and there will be no choice in the matter. The old telephone companies will be out of rural America in that time frame. They wouldn’t have enough customers to support landlines function and all their plant and equipment will be worthless period. This is one ISP that is putting all this broadband and also VoIP phone at the same time as they put in broadband with the customer. So the bottom line is people will have broadband or they wouldn’t have communication period. Some areas may be close to dropping their landlines in the next few months. The phone companies will be negative income and couldn’t support anymore. So the number should increase quickly in rural America on this function and will show that most of rural America is on broadband in the next census study. It will not be on dial up as their will not be landlines anymore. The dial up companies will lose all these customers and may have to go out of business.