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Home Internet Is Becoming a Luxury for the Wealthy
Poorer Americans are increasingly reliant on smartphones as their primary way to access the internet
There’s a growing divide between the rich and the poor when it comes to how they access the internet.
In the United States, people with higher incomes are maintaining home internet connections — think broadband services for a desktop computer — while those making less than $30,000 a year are increasingly reliant on their smartphones, according to a new report from the Pew Research Center.
Though the number of people who have high-speed internet in their homes is rising overall, a larger portion of lower-income people are using smartphones as their only way to get online compared to previous years.
This year, 26% of U.S. adults who earn less than $30,000 said they’re “smartphone only” internet users. That’s up from 12% in 2013, 20% in 2015, and 21% in 2016. The number of smartphone-reliant people in the top income bracket of $75,000 sits at 6% — relatively unchanged from 5% in 2013.
Hispanic and black adults in the U.S. also have higher rates of being “smartphone only.” In 2019, 23% of black and 25% of Hispanic adults only had a smartphone and no home broadband.
