Digital Access Gap Hits Some Subgroups Harder

The overall gap between Internet use in rural and urban areas has remained relatively consistent for the past two decades. Since 1998, rural people have used the Internet at a rate that is 6 to 9 points lower than urban residents. Lower levels of Internet usage are not uniform across different segments of the rural population. Some rural Americans use the Internet at rates comparable to their urban counterparts, but the rural-urban gap gets more pronounced for those with less education and money.  A new report from the National Telecommunications and Infrastructure Administration shows that there are significant differences within the rural-urban digital divide when you look below the surface at sub-groups of rural Americans. Rural college graduates, for example, use the Internet at about the same rate as urban graduates (83 and 84 percent respectively). But as education levels fall, the gap between rural and urban usage increases. Sixty-three percent of rural residents with just a high school diploma use the Internet. That’s 6 points lower than the rate for urban residents with a high school diploma. The gap was slightly larger for rural residents who did not have diploma. For that group, 52 percent of rural residents used the Internet, while 59 percent of urban residents who lacked a high school diploma used the Internet.