New Report / Data: “Digital Divide Narrows for Latinos as More Spanish Speakers and Immigrants Go Online”

From Pew Research Center:

The long-standing digital divide in internet use between Latinos and whites is now at its narrowest point since 2009 as immigrant Latinos and Spanish-dominant Latinos make big strides in going online, according to newly released results from Pew Research Center’s 2015 National Survey of Latinos. Meanwhile, broadband use among Latinos is little changed since 2010.
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Since 2009, the share of Latino adults who report using the internet increased 20 percentage points, up from 64% then to 84% in 2015. Over the same period, internet use among whites grew too, though at a slower rate, moving from 80% to 89%. As a result, the gap in internet use between Latinos and whites declined from 16 percentage points in 2009 to 5 percentage points in 2015.

Big gains in internet use made by immigrant Hispanics and Spanish-dominant Hispanics, two closely linked groups, ² have been the main drivers in closing this gap. Both groups have long had among the lowest internet use rates among Hispanics – and that is still the case today. Even so, between 2009 and 2015, the share of immigrant Hispanics who use the internet grew from 51% to 78%. And over the same period, the share of Spanish-dominant Hispanics who use the internet about doubled, from 36% to 74%. As a result, the digital divide among Hispanics has also diminished.
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Meanwhile, the share of all Hispanic adults who access the internet through a home broadband connection is little changed since 2010. Then, 45% said they accessed the internet through a broadband home connection. Today that share is 46%. Among blacks too there was little change in the share of adults who have broadband access at home – 50% in 2010 and 55% in 2015. Over the same period, that share among whites grew from 64% to 73%.
The Latino survey also shows that among Latino adults, 80% access the internet from a mobile device, similar to the shares among whites (76%) and blacks (77%) in 2015.
More than 55 million Hispanics live in the U.S. today. The nation’s Hispanic population is also one of the country’s fastest growing groups. It is also among the nation’s youngest – nearly half are under the age of 18.

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