The Pew Research Center has published a new report indicating progress towards reducing the digital divide between Latino and white populations. Since 2009, the number of Latino adults who report using the Internet has risen from 64% to 84%. The Internet usage rate also grew 9% for white adults from 80% to 89%. This results in a 5 percentage point gap between Latinos and whites using data from 2015, improving significantly upon the 16% difference between the two ethnic groups in 2009.
The biggest contributor to this dramatic change comes from immigrant Hispanics and Spanish-dominant Hispanics, two groups that have traditionally had the lowest Internet usage rates. The Pew Hispanic Center reports the percentage of immigrant Hispanics who use the Internet grew from 51% to 78%, and usage rates almost doubled for Spanish language dominant Hispanics from 36% to 74%.
While these numbers are encouraging, the results are also a bit misleading. Historically, Latino Internet usage has mostly relied on smart phone and mobile Internet use. In 2010 only 45% of Hispanic adults accessed the Internet from a home broadband connection, 2015 data reveals still only 46% of Hispanic adults report using the Internet from a wired home connection. In the same period of time, white adults accessing a home broadband connection grew from 64% to 73% and the percentage of black adults accessing from home grew from 50% to 55%.
Given the advantages to a home broadband connection, the 28 point percentage gap for home broadband usage between Latino adults and white adults still presents a large digital divide. Pew reports nearly 55 million Hispanics live in the U.S., with almost half the population under the age of 18. Closing this digital divide for household adoption could be especially important looking at possible future workforce shortages in the tech industry. These statistics would also seem to reflect the struggle to hire a diverse tech workforce.
To read Pew’s summary and full report, written by Anna Brown, Gustavo Lopez, and Mark Hugo Lopez, click here:
https://www.pewhispanic.org/2016/07/20/digital-divide-narrows-for-latinos-as-more-spanish-speakers-and-immigrants-go-online/