Almost Three-Quarters of All U.S. Adults – An Estimated 163 million – Go Online

The numbers of adults who are online at home, in the office, at school, library or other locations continue to grow albeit at a somewhat slower rate. In the past eight months the number of online users has reached an estimated 163 million, a four percent increase. In addition, broadband use continues to grow rapidly – over half (54%) of adults who go online use broadband at home.

In research among 2,022 U.S. adults surveyed by telephone in February and April 2005, Harris Interactive^® found that 74 percent of adults are now online, up from 73 percent in the summer of 2004, 66 percent in the spring of 2002, 64 percent in 2001 and 57 percent in 2000. When Harris Interactive first began to track Internet use in 1995, only nine percent of adults reported they were online.

This recent growth in Internet penetration seems to be the result of increased Internet access at other locations though usage at home and work has also increased slightly. Adults who are online at a location other than their home or work rose to 21 percent up from 17 percent in 2004 and 16 percent in 2003. The proportion of adults who are now online at home has risen to 66 percent, up from 65 percent in 2004 and 61 percent in 2003. Those online at work have risen to 36 percent from 34 percent in 2004 and 31 percent in 2003.

By far the most striking change in this new Harris Interactive research is the big increase in those with broadband connections. In the spring of 2002 only 22 percent of adults who are online had broadband (including ISDN, cable, ADSL/DSL, T1 and T3 lines) connections. By October/December 2003, this had increased to 37 percent. It is now up to 54 percent of all those online.

As Internet penetration rises, the demographic profile of Internet users continues to look more like that of the nation as a whole. It is still true that more young than older people, and more affluent than low-income people, are online. But eight percent of those online are now age 65 or over (compared to 15% of all adults who are 65 or over), 38 percent of those online (compared to 47% of all adults) did not go to college and 16 percent have incomes of less than $25,000 (compared to 21% of all adults).

"At home, do you personally use a computer to access the Internet/World Wide Web?"

"At work, do you personally use a computer to access the Internet/World Wide Web?"

"At another location, do you personally use a computer to access the Internet/World Wide Web?"

"Excluding email, how many hours per week, on average, do you typically spend on the Internet or World Wide Web?"

Base: All Adults

NOTE: N/A means "not asked"

TABLE 2 
PC AND INTERNET USE - TRENDS 1995-2005

"Do you personally use a computer at home, work or another location?"

"At home, do you personally use a computer to access the Internet/World Wide Web?"

"At work, do you personally use a computer to access the Internet/World Wide Web?"

"At another location, do you personally use a computer to access the Internet/World Wide Web?"

Base: All Adults

1. All samples of 2,000 or more adults, conducted by telephone.

2. "Are Online" includes all adults who use Internet from home, office, school, library or other location.

* Estimated from other sources.

TABLE 3

PROFILE OF ONLINE POPULATION 
(February-April 2005) 

"At home, do you personally use a computer to Access the Internet/World Wide Web?" "At work, do you personally use a computer to access the Internet/World Wide Web?"

"At another location, do you personally use a computer to access the Internet/World Wide Web?"

Base: All Adults

"At home, do you personally use a computer to Access the Internet/World Wide Web?"

"At work, do you personally use a computer to access the Internet/World Wide Web?"

"At another location, do you personally use a computer to access the Internet/World Wide Web?"

Base: All Adults

* Based on July 2004 U.S. Census estimate released January 2005 (220,000,000 total adults aged 18 or over)

"What type of Internet connection do you have for your home computer or other primary computer?"

Base: Adults online

*Includes ISDN, cable, ADSL/DSL, T1 or T3 lines.

The Harris Poll^® is based on 2,022 interviews with adults aged18 and over conducted by telephone within the United States during February 2005 and April 2005. Figures for age, sex, race, education, number of adults and number of voice/telephone lines in the household were weighted where necessary to align them with their actual proportions in the population.

In theory, with a probability sample of this size, one can say with 95 percent certainty that the results have a sampling error of plus or minus 2 percentage points of what they would be if the entire U.S. adult population had been polled with complete accuracy. Unfortunately, there are several other possible sources of error in all polls or surveys that are probably more serious than theoretical calculations of sampling error. They include refusals to be interviewed (nonresponse), question wording and question order, interviewer bias, weighting by demographic control data and screening (e.g., for likely voters). It is impossible to quantify the errors that may result from these factors.

J23283 & J23845