US Commerce Dept on PC usage

[hoov]

> US Department of Commerce
> press release 7-28-98 from
> <http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/net2/falling.html>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> ----------
> excerpts
> --------------
> III. Highlights
> 
> The following highlights from the 1997 data are discussed below: the
> expanded information access, the persisting "digital divide," and a
> profile of the "least connected."
> 
> Expanded information access. The 1997 data demonstrate that, as a
> nation, Americans have increasingly embraced the Information Age
> through electronic access in their homes. The 1997 nation-wide data
> show the following nation-wide penetration rates -- 93.8% for
> telephones, 36.6% for personal computers (PCs); 26.3% for modems, and
> 18.6% for on-line access (Chart 1). Compared to the 1994 survey
> results, the nationwide telephone penetration has remained unchanged.
> The computer penetration rate, however, has grown substantially in the
> last three years: PC ownership has increased 51.9%, modem ownership
> has grown 139.1%, and E-mail access has expanded by 397.1%.
> 
> Persisting "digital divide." Despite this significant growth in
> computer ownership and usage overall, the growth has occurred to a
> greater extent within some income levels, demographic groups, and
> geographic areas, than in others. In fact, the "digital divide"
> between certain groups of Americans has increased between 1994 and
> 1997 so that there is now an even greater disparity in penetration
> levels among some groups. There is a widening gap, for example,
> between those at upper and lower income levels. Additionally, even
> though all racial groups now own more computers than they did in 1994,
> Blacks and Hispanics now lag even further behind Whites in their
> levels of PC-ownership and on-line access. The following represent
> some of the more significant findings.
> ....
> 
> Income. Income greatly affects penetration levels.
> For computers, households below $35,000 in annual income all have PC
> and on-line access levels below the national average (36.6%, 26.3%)
> (Chart 11). Rural households earning between $5,000 - $10,000 account
> for the lowest penetration rate for PCs (7.9%) and on-line access
> (2.3%). By contrast, households earning more than $75,000 in urban
> areas have the highest PC-ownership rates (76%) and on-line access
> rates (50.3%).
> 
> Although all income groups are now more likely to own a computer, the
> penetration levels for those at higher incomes have grown more
> significantly. As a result, the gap in computer ownership levels
> between higher-income households and lower-income households has
> expanded in the last three years. For example, the difference in
> PC-ownership levels between households earning $10,000 - $14, 000 and
> those earning $50,000 - $74,999 was 47.7 percentage points in 1997, up
> from 38.2 percentage points in 1994.
> 
> Race. There is still a significant divide among racial groups in
> telephone penetration. Overall, White households have a far higher
> telephone penetration rate (95.9%) than Black (86%) or Hispanic
> (86.5%) households (Chart 4). This divide is particularly pronounced
> at incomes below $15,000: 90.3% for Whites, 76.3% for Blacks, and 78.4
> % for Hispanics.
> 
> The divide among races is even more striking for PC ownership and
> on-line access. While the ownership of PCs have grown most
> significantly for minority groups since 1994, Blacks and Hispanics
> still lag far behind the national average (Chart 12). White households
> are still more than twice as likely (40.8%) to own a computer than
> Black (19.3%) or Hispanic (19.4%) households.(3) This divide is
> apparent across all income levels: even at incomes higher than
> $75,000, Whites are more likely to have PCs (76.3%) than are Blacks
> (64.1%) (Chart 13). Similarly, the rates for on-line access are nearly
> three times as high for Whites (21.2%) as for Blacks (7.7%) or
> Hispanics (8.7%).
> 
> Significantly, the digital divide between racial groups in
> PC-ownership has increased since 1994 (Chart 14). In 1997, the
> difference in PC-ownership levels between White and Black households
> was 21.5 percentage points, up from 16.8 percentage points in 1994.
> Similarly, the gap in PC-ownership rates between White and Hispanic
> households in 1997 has increased to 21.4 percentage points, up from
> 14.8 percentage points in 1994. This gap has increased at almost all
> income levels, including at incomes above $75,000, where some might
> have expected computer-ownership rates to converge (Chart 15).
> 
> Age.
> With respect to computer penetration, as in 1994, seniors account for
> the lowest age category (21.0% for PCs, 8.8% for on-line access),
> followed by the young (28.0% for PCs,17.1% for on-line access) (Charts
> 16, 22). Those households most likely to own a PC are in the
> 35-44-year-old bracket (49%).
> 
> Education. The level of education affects the penetration rates much
> as income does: generally, the greater one's education, the greater
> the likelihood that person has a phone, PC, or modem.
> The comparison is even more striking with respect to PC ownership:
> those with a college education are almost ten times as likely to own a
> computer as those without any high school (63.2% vs. 6.8%) (Chart 17).
> This difference in PC-ownership is even more distinct in rural areas:
> 64.7% versus 5.3%. Most striking are the differences in on-line access
> among those with a college degree (38.4%), those with a high school
> diploma (9.6%), and those without any high school education (1.8%)
> (Chart 23).
> 
> Household Type.
> Households composed of married couples with children are roughly twice
> as likely to own PCs and have on-line access (57.2%, 29.4%,
> respectively) as are single parent households headed by a male (30.5%,
> 14%, respectively) or a female (25%, 9.2%) or households without
> families (23.5%, 18.9%, respectively) (Chart 18).
> 
> 
> II. Background
> 
> The present survey updates those results, using similar data compiled
> by the Census Bureau in October 1997. The Census Bureau compiled this
> data through 48,000 door-to-door surveys. As in 1994, the Census
> Bureau has cross-tabulated the information gathered according to
> specific variables, such as income, race, age, educational attainment,
> as well as geographic categories (i.e., rural, urban, and central
> city, as well as by state and region). These tabulations permit
> insights into the characteristics of Americans that have access to the
> information infrastructure, and those that do not.