Report Shows Some Digital Divide Patterns With Technology Ownership

MENLO PARK, Calif.
A new report from Knowledge Networks/SRI finds that households with higher incomes or children are much more likely to own a range of media technologies, from PCs to high-speed Internet access to DVD players. By comparison, the "digital divide" between different ethnic and age groups is less severe, though still substantial in certain cases.
"Our findings suggest that the ‘digital divide' will have an impact on the mainstreaming of today's emerging media technologies, as well as many that have yet to appear on the scene," says David C. Tice, vice president of Client Service at Knowledge Networks/SRI.
Among the findings:
- Families earning more than $50,000 per year are still more than twice as likely to have a PC (89 percent to 41 percent) compared to those earning under $30,000. The higher-income homes are also five times more likely to have broadband Internet access (39 percent to 8 percent) and more than twice as likely to have digital cable TV (27 percent to 11 percent).
- The presence of children almost doubles the likelihood that a home will have broadband, 29 percent to 16 percent for households with no children, and significantly increases its chances of having digital cable TV (22 percent to 16 percent), a DVD player (71 percent to 47 percent), or a home computer (76 percent to 59 percent).
- In a comparison of White, African American and Hispanic households, White families were more likely to have PCs and high-speed Internet, but ownership of DVD players was uniform, and African Americans were almost twice as likely to subscribe to digital cable as the other two groups.
For more information, see <www.knowledgenetworks.com>.