If you've ever cursed the world for your bad Wi-Fi, it may not be the fault of your Internet service provider. You may want to start blaming your state. The U.S. Census Bureau released a new report on computer and Internet use among Americans in 2013. It shows that not everyone has the same amount of access to high-speed Internet.
Last year, about 78 percent of Americans reported having high-speed Internet access. The state that reported the most access was New Hampshire with nearly 86 percent of residents saying they had high-speed Internet use. The state with the least access was Mississippi with approximately 62 percent.
The Census Bureau broke the data down further to look at high-speed Internet access for individuals by metropolitan area. One would expect America's tech hubs like California's Silicon Valley to reign supreme in this area, but that wasn't exactly the case. Though Silicon Valley had an impressive showing with 88.5 percent of residents of the San Jose/Sunnyvale/Santa Clara, Calif. area reporting they had high-speed Internet access, this was actually the third-best metropolitan area. Corvallis, Ore. eeked out a win here with 89 percent of residents living with high-speed Internet access. The metropolitan area with the least access to high-speed Internet was Farmington, N.M. at approximately 53 percent.
Last year was the first time the Census Bureau included questions about computer and Internet use in its questionnaire, which is used in 290,000 households per month. However, the Census Bureau has been asking about computer use since 1984 and Internet access since 1997, according to The Washington Post.
Speaking of computers, if you look at the map of computer ownership and high-speed Internet use across the U.S. in 2013 provided by the Census Bureau, the results are pretty stark.
As you can see, there is a clear digital divide in the country with residents in the Northeast and West being statistically more connected compared to the national values. On the other hand, the majority of states in the Midwest, South and Southwest are statistically less likely to own computers and have access to high-speed Internet.
This divide is most likely the result of household income. As the report also highlights, "Household computer ownership and Internet use were most common in homes with relatively young householders, in households with Asian or White householders, in households with high incomes, in metropolitan areas, and in homes where householders reported relatively high levels of educational attainment." In fact, more than half of America's poorest households reported not having any sort of Internet subscription at all.
Image: Allison Joyce / Getty Images
