With an estimated 156 million adults (73 percent of the population) on the Internet in the United States, almost half of them (44 percent) have broadband connections, according to the latest survey by Harris Interactive.
“In the past eight months, the number of online users has reached 156 million, a seven percent increase,” the pollsters said. “In addition, broadband use continues to grow rapidly – over four in 10 adults use broadband at home.”
The numbers are up from 69 percent of American adults going online late last year, 64 percent in 2001, and 63 percent in 2000 – not to mention only nine percent of American adults being online in 1995. Those are figures for home Net use. On the job, Harris said, the numbers are up to 34 percent of American adults now, 31 percent in 2003, and 28 percent in 2002.
Harris said more access at home and on the job is the main reason for the online population jump – but the most striking change the pollsters saw was the big jump in broadband connections, with only 22 percent of online American adults having broadband connections two years ago but 37 percent between October and December 2003 and 44 percent now.
“As Internet penetration rises, the demographic profile of Internet users continues to look more like that of the nation as a whole,” the pollsters said. “It is still true that more young than older people, and more affluent than low-income people, are online.” But it is also true, the pollsters continued, that seven percent of American Netizens are over age 65, 39 percent did not go to college, and 16 percent earn $25,000 or less.
