Pew: No Improvement in Percentage of Offline Americans

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The percentage of offline Americans has stayed roughly the same for three years running despite various government and private-sector initiatives to promote broadband Internet access throughout the nation, according to the latest market data from the Pew Research Center. More than one in 10 Americans (13%) did not use the Internet as of 2015.

Nonetheless, 13% is much lower than the 48% of Americans Pew Research determined did not use the Internet in 2000, the first year it began tracking Internet adoption. And it’s 2% lower than Pew registered in 2015. 

Aiming to explain why some Americans still don’t use the Internet, Pew research conducted in 2013 found that one-third (34%) said they didn’t because it was too difficult to use. Among them, 8% said they were too old to learn. 

Nearly one-fifth (19%) said Internet service or the cost of owning a computer was too expensive.

Reasons for the Percentage of Offline Americans

This year’s survey results reveal that a number of factors – age, level of education, household income and community type – correlate with not using the Internet.

Seniors are the most likely demographic group to avoid the Internet, according to Pew’s latest research results. About four in 10 U.S. seniors (41%) don’t use the Internet. That compares to just 1% of Americans ages 18-29 that don’t, according to Pew’s Americans’ Internet Access: 2000-2015.

Furthermore, adults living in households wherein income totals less than $30,000 per year are about eight times more likely not to use the Internet than more affluent adults.

Not using the Internet also correlates significantly with level of education, Pew found. Around one-third of U.S. adults with less than a high school level of education don’t venture online. That percentage falls as level of education rises.

In addition, rural Americans are about as twice as likely to not use the Internet as those living in urban or suburban communities.

Race and ethnicity correlated significantly with not using the Internet in previous years’ studies. That wasn’t the case this year, however. Today, whites, blacks and Caucasians are equally likely not to use the Internet, Pew found. The survey lacked a sufficient number of Asian-Americans for conclusions to be drawn about them.

On the flip side of the coin, the number of Americans that do use the Internet has been rising steadily since Pew first began tracking data.

Approaching nine in 10 American seniors 65 or older did not use the Internet in 2000. That figure has been cut in half. Similarly, the share of Americans without a high school diploma that did not use the Internet has dropped from 81% in 2000 to 34% last year.