Reports on NTIA's Falling Through the Net

Report on NTIA's "Falling Through the Net"

You won't read Falling Through the Net: A Survey of the "Have Nots" in Rural and Urban America for its prose. But you will want to keep it on hand for its reference value. Falling Through the Net, published by the U.S. Department of Commerce in July 1995, is a collection of statistics recounting the discouraging numbers of who does - and who doesn't - have access to computer technology and the Internet.

For those working in community computing, it provides valuable information needed to make the case that the technology gap exists. It also recognizes the role community access centers need to play in addressing the information and technology gap.

The principal source for the statistics is the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey (CPS). Responses were crosstabulated in the areas of income, race, age, education and region, and by three geographic categories¾rural, urban and center city. The questions included looking at the percent of U.S. households with a telephone, with a computer, with a computer and a modem, and using online services.

The survey numbers support what many already know: that information havenots are disproportionately found in our country's rural areas and central cities. Income is a clear indicator as to whether a household has a computer. 7.6% of central city residents and 4.5% of rural residents with a household income of less than $10,000 have computers. Almost twothirds of all households earning $75,000 annually have computers. Other findings include: ·

On the basis of race, black households in central cities and rural areas have the lowest percentage of computers in the home. Asian and white households have the highest.· On the basis of age, the youngest and most senior households are least likely to have computers in the home, especially those living in rural areas.
In general, the fewer the years of education, the lower the telephone, computer and computermodem household penetration.
Many of the groups least likely to have computers and modems at home are as enthusiastic about using online services as others when technology is there.
The findings here will help identify those who should be targeted in policies designed to narrow the information gap. The report also identifies the "pivotal role to be assumed in the new electronic age by the traditional providers of information access for the general public the public schools, and libraries... and other community access centers..."
For more information and a detailed look at the statistics, contact the U.S. Department of Commerce at (800) 8548407 and request a copy of the report, or check out the web page at http://www.doc.ntia.
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