Survey: U.S. Internet Population Reaches All-Time High

The number of adults in the United States who surf the Web has reached an all-time high, with 73 percent, or 147 million people, logging on to the Internet, the Associated Press reports via the New York Post.

The finding is based on a recent phone survey of 4,001 people by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, released Wednesday, according to the AP.

That’s an increase of 7 percent over the 133 million adults Pew found were Web surfing in January of last year, the AP reports.

The connection speeds of Web access still vary greatly, however, with a mere 42 percent of adults using the high-speed connections necessary for easy viewing of large video and audio files, according to the AP. Counting home Internet connections only, 62 percent of adult Internet users in the United States have broadband, the AP reports.

Age and income continue to define Internet usage. Of adults younger than 30 years old, 88 percent surf the Web, while only 32 percent of people age 65 and over visit the Internet, according to the AP. Adults in U.S. households that take in less than $30,000 see 53 percent of their adult inhabitants using the Internet, compared to the 91 percent of adult Web surfers in homes that take in more than $75,000, the AP reports.

The Pew survey took place from Feb. 15 to April 6, and the margin of sampling error is plus or minus 2 percentage points, according to the AP.

Check out our CIO News Alerts and Tech Informer pages for more updated news coverage.