Digital Access in the Hartford Region

These spreadsheets display estimated data about access to the internet from home in the Hartford region. The data is provided by the U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey (also know as the Current Survey of Population), School Enrollment and Internet Use Supplement from October 2007. Note that the spreadsheets represent an extract of the data provided by the Census Bureau and were downloaded in September, 2009.

Click here for data showing numbers of people with internet access from home.

Click here for data showing the numbers of people using different methods to access the internet from home (e.g. cable, dial-up)

Note that, according to the Census Bureau, a large number of people are "not in the statistical universe," for a variety of reasons. The estimate of those included in this group is based on survey respondents who did not answer or answered "no" to the initial question, "Do you access the internet from any location?" or those instances in which the Census Bureau had reason to question the data. The estimate of the numbers who are not included in the data is listed in the row labeled "not in universe."

Click here for a definition of the term "statistical universe."

Related Data

A related table shows internet access by age and race for the entire United States is provided by the National Center for Education Statistics: http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d08/tables/dt08_429.asp

Additionally, data from the Pew Research Center shows trends in online access: http://www.pewinternet.org/Static-Pages/Trend-Data/Whos-Online.aspx

Tables for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration which show data for the states can be accessed here: http://www.ntia.doc.gov/data/CPS2009_Tables.html

Click here for a recent report from the National Telecommunications Information Administration, entitled "Digital Nation," published in February 2011. The report shows changes in internet access for the U.S. by age, race, gender, income, etc.

About the Current Population Survey

The data is a rather rough estimate of who has access to the internet from home. It may be helpful to understand how the data is collected. Below is a description from the Census Bureau of the history of the survey and the methods used to collect the data.

The Current Population Survey is (CPS) is designed to be the source of the official government statistics on employment and unemployment.

Although the main purpose of the survey is to collect information about employment, a very important secondary purpose is to collect other information such as on internet access. The statistics resulting from these questions serve to update similar information collected once every 10 years through the decennial census

The CPS has been conducted monthly for over 50 years. Currently, the US Census Bureau obtains interviews from about 57,000 households monthly, scientifically selected on the basis of area of residence to represent the nation as a whole, individual states, and metropolitan areas. Therefore, while the households are selected scientifically, the data are rough estimates.

The School Enrollment and Internet Use Supplement to the Current Population Survey

The Census Bureau staff conducted the October 2007 School Enrollment and Internet Use Survey as a supplement to that month's Current Population Survey (CPS). The Census Bureau staff conducted interviews during the period of October 14-20, 2007. Note that those interviewed can refuse to answer any question.

The questions about Internet use are listed below:

1 Do you/Does anyone in this household use the Internet at any location?

2 Who is that? Enter persons line number (1 – 16) Enter all that apply, separated by commas

3 Do you/Does anyone in this household connect to the Internet from home?

4 Do you currently access the Internet using ---?

a) A regular ‘dial-up’ telephone
b) DSL, cable modem, satellite, wireless (such as Wi-Fi), mobile phone or PDA, fiber optics, or some other broadband Internet connection
c) Something else