Survey: Asian Americans Are the Most Wired Ethnic Group
WASHINGTON
English-speaking Asian Americans are more experienced and more active Internet users than Whites, African Americans or Hispanics, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, a nonprofit initiative funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts to examine the Internet’s impact on children, families, communities, health care, schools, the workplace and civic life.
The project’s surveys of 13,946 Internet users show that about three-quarters of Asian American adults have gone online, a significantly greater rate than the 58 percent of White adults, the 50 percent of Hispanic adults, and the 43 percent of African American adults who have done so.
With a U.S. population of more than 5 million, Asian American Internet users are also the Internet’s most active users. Asian Americans who responded in phone surveys conducted in English are among the nation’s heaviest users of the Internet on a day-to-day basis — with 70 percent of them online on a typical day. This is significantly higher than any other English-speaking ethnic group; 58 percent of White Internet users go online daily, along with 48 percent of Hispanics and 39 percent of African Americans.
As a group, Asian Americans have been online a lot longer than their peers. Almost half are Internet veterans with more than three years of online experience, and 80 percent have been online for more than two years. When Asian Americans go online, they stay connected for longer than anyone else. Almost 40 percent of Asian American users who are online during a typical day spend two or more hours on the Web. About 15 percent spend four or more hours online.
“Clearly, Asian Americans have enthusiastically brought the Internet deeply into their daily lives — not only as a source of information for school and work and for news, but also as a way to enhance their social lives and as a source of fun,” says Tom Spooner, a research specialist at the project and the principal author of the report.
There are some general differences between what Asian American users like to do and what other users prefer. For example, they are proportionally much more likely than others to get information about financial matters, travel and political information. Asian American users are also more likely to use the Internet as a resource at school or at work. Thirty-four percent of Asian American users get the day’s news online during a typical day, compared with 22 percent of Whites, 20 percent of Hispanics and 15 percent of African American Internet users.
For a copy of the report, visit <www.pewinternet.org/>.
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