p2pnet - rss feed: US rural broadband use grows
p2p news / p2pnet: Use of high-speed Net services is increasing in rural America, says the Pew Internet and American Life Project.
Rural areas show fast growth in home broadband uptake in the past two years, "and the gap between rural and non-rural America in home broadband adoption, though still substantial, is narrowing," says the report.
By the end of last year, 24% of rural Americans had high-speed connections at home compared with 39% of adult Americans living elsewhere.
"In 2003, 9% of rural Americans had broadband at home, less than half the rate (22%) in urban and suburban America," says Pew. "For overall internet use - by whatever connection from any location - the penetration rate for adult rural Americans lagged the rest of the country by 8 percentage points at the end of 2005 (a 62% to 70% margin). This is about half the gap that existed at the end of 2003."
Three demographic factors are behind the persistent difference in internet penetration between rural and non-rural America, states the report.
Rural America has a greater share of old Americans than urban and suburban America, "and older Americans go online at lower rates than other age groups. Fully 43% of rural Americans are over the age of 50 (and 18% are over age 65) while 38% of non-rural Americans are over the age of 50, with 16% over 65)," it says.
Income is another factor and, ""More rural Americans fall in the lower end of the nation’s income distribution; 33% of rural respondents in our September-December data say they live in households with incomes below $30,000 annually compared with 24% of non-rural respondent," says Pew.
On top of that, "rural Americans are, on average, less educated than urban and suburban Americans; 29% of non-rural Americans have college (or higher) degrees compared to 18% of rural Americans."
Also See:
Pew - Home Broadband Adoption in Rural America, February 26, 2006
