Pew: 70 Percent of Americans Have Broadband While Latinos Lag Behind, But Smartphones Make a Difference

A new Pew study shows some delay for broadband internet access for Latinos, but also a possible solution.  

In general, more and more Americans have access to home broadband internet connections. According to the Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project, the trend has continued upwards since the group began measuring the metric in 2000. As of May 2013, 70 percent of American adults have broadband, up from 66 percent last year. But according to the study, Latinos are lagging behind on home broadband access. However, smartphones might be bridging that digital divide, as Latinos are also the most likely to use wireless internet instead of home broadband.

The survey, which also measured the number of people using dial-up at home, unsurprisingly found that younger adults with higher education attainment and household income are the most likely to have broadband connections at home. "We've consistently found that age, education, and household income are among the strongest factors associated with home broadband adoption," said Kathryn Zickuhr, Research Associate for the Pew Research Center's Internet Project and lead author of the report. "Many dial-up users cite cost and access as the main reasons they don't have broadband, but for adults who don't use the internet at all, a lack of interest is often the main issue."

Nearly 90 percent of college graduates had broadband internet connections, with those at a household income level of $75,000 or more a year tracking almost as high. The older respondents were, the less likely they were to have broadband, with those aged 65 and up actually the only age demographic to have less than half of their numbers online. Educational attainment also correlated highly with broadband use, as respondents without a highs school diploma were the most likely not to have broadband of every metric measured, at a 37 percent high-speed internet adoption rate. Three percent of all U.S. adults still have dial-up.

Latinos Lag Behind

When the survey was categorized by race/ethnicity, Hispanics (English and Spanish-speaking) were found to be the most unlikely group to have access to home broadband internet connections. In fact, at 53 percent, Latinos' low rate of home high-speed internet use was statistically significant, compared to White, Non-Hispanics at 74 percent and Black, Non-Hispanics, at 64 percent.

However, that trend seems deceptively low, after counting the number of Latinos who are accessing the internet with relatively high-speed smartphone connections. As Latinos Post Tech has reported before, Latinos' adoption rate of smartphone technology is higher than the national average, according to another Pew poll. And in the report released on Monday, Pew also measured the number of U.S. adults who have smartphones compared to broadband connections, though Pew said that because there was no "widespread consensus" as to whether 3G or 4G smartphones can qualify as "broadband" speed, smartphone-only users were not counted as having broadband.

Smartphones Supplanting Broadband

Of all of the demographic metrics compared by Pew between having broadband at home and "having home broadband or a smartphone," Latinos showed the greatest difference - a difference of 22 percent, in fact, between the 53 percent that have home broadband and the 75 percent who have high-speed home internet or a smartphone.

This, according to Pew, means that while Latinos are less likely to have access to home broadband, "their use of smartphones nearly eliminates that difference." Pew also found that, in general, 10 percent of U.S. adults use a smartphone but not a home broadband connection.

While broadband internet is far too important for economic and educational success to discount it as an "old" technology, and there is still a great need for initiatives to bridge the digital divide within the U.S., the most recent Pew study agrees with what other research has found: that Latinos, especially young Latinos, are adopting newer and emerging technological media - whether it's social media, Reddit, or smartphones - at some of the highest rates for any demographic.