NTIA Says Rural/Urban Internet Use Gap Persists, Reasons 'Complex and Stubborn'
Rural consumers continue to trail urban consumers in Internet use despite the advent of smartphones and social media, NTIA said in a webpage post Wednesday on the state of the urban/rural digital divide. NTIA said 75 percent of urban consumers…
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and 69 percent of rural consumers use the internet, continuing a "remarkably consistent" 6-10 percentage point gap that has persisted since 1998, when the agency began gathering data. "This suggests that in spite of advances in both policy and technology, the barriers to Internet adoption existing in rural communities are complex and stubborn," NTIA said. "Americans who were otherwise less likely to use the Internet -- such as those with lower levels of family income or education -- faced an even larger disadvantage when living in a rural area." Rural individuals with higher levels of education or family income don't have significantly lower adoption rates than their urban counterparts, according to the data, which come from NTIA’s Computer and Internet Use Supplement to the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey. Both agencies are part of the Commerce Department.