Digital Divide

While Internet usage is increasing on the average, the US Department of Commerce, the Economics and Statistics Administration, and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration recently reported that huge gaps still exists for Blacks, Hispanics an low-income families.

• A comparison of Internet access between Black households and the national average yields a 23.5% to 41.5% ratio, a staggering 18 percent point difference.
• A comparison of Internet access between Hispanic households and the national average yields a 23.6% to 41.5% ratio, also an 18 percent point difference.
• Only 16.1% of Hispanics and 18.9% of Blacks have access to the Internet from home.
• 86% of households in Illinois earning less than $15,000 per year do not own a computer and 90% do not use the Internet at home (national average is 77% and 82%, respectively).

Chicagoans are performing more day-to-day functions on the Internet, including academic research, email, business transactions, and employment searches. Over time, the need for a basic set of Internet skills will become imperative to ones success. As the divide in digital connectedness grows, many poor and minority Chicagoans will find themselves at a greater disadvantage.

To learn more about the US Department of Commerce's findings visit
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/reports/anol/NationOnlineBroadband04.pdf
http://search.ntia.doc.gov/pdf/fttn00.pdf  

Youth and Technology Illinois Factsheet http://www.techpolicybank.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=State_Fact_Sheets&Template=/CM/HTMLDisplay.cfm&ContentID=8452

National Factsheet http://www.techpolicybank.org/Content/NavigationMenu2/Resources/
StateFactSheets/default.htm

To view Charts about Households with computers and Internet access (February 2001) visit http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/dn/hhs/HHSchartsindex.html

 For more information, visit http://www.techpolicybank.org