New NTIA Data Show Enduring Barriers to Closing the Digital Divide, Achieving Digital Equity | US National Telecommunications and Information Administration | May 11, 2022

"Over the past two years, the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted what many already knew: high-speed internet access is not a luxury; it’s a necessity. As workplaces and schools shifted to online environments, families that lacked access to affordable, reliable, high-speed connections, appropriate devices, and digital skills fell further behind. Newly released data from the 2021 NTIA Internet Use Survey show that historically less-connected communities used the Internet and connected devices in greater numbers than they did two years ago. Despite that progress, the substantial disparities that NTIA has tracked for decades continued to be evident, highlighting the urgent need to work toward digital equity in the United States. The 2021 NTIA Internet Use Survey represents the first comprehensive federal data on how Internet use in America has evolved since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The results make clear that our nation faces substantial challenges to achieving full digital equity. Over the coming months, NTIA will continue to analyze the data to help inform the important policy choices that will be made as part of the new high-speed internet programs in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The Digital Equity Act, in particular, references the Internet Use Survey as a key data point to help determine award amounts for the $1.5 billion State Digital Equity Planning and Capacity Grant Programs. Much of the value of the NTIA Internet Use Survey comes from how researchers, advocates, and other members of the public use it in their own work. We have updated the NTIA Data Explorer tool to include metrics from the most recent survey, while also adding some user interface improvements. And in the coming weeks, we will post the complete public use dataset and sample code for use with statistical programs...."