People and the Internet - Who Uses The Internet: By Race

According to the Department of Commerce, as of September 2001, roughly 149 million Americans were using the Internet (about 54% of the population). Two million new Internet users join the Internet every month.

The graphic shows the online population by race from 1997 to 2001. Access has increased across the board, with African Americans and Hispanics seeing the strongest rates of growth. Between 1997 and 2001, black participation on the Internet increased by 201.5%, Hispanic participation by 187.3%, Asian/Pacific Islander presence by 128.8%, and white participation by 136.8%.

Populations with the highest household incomes were first on the Internet. Those with less disposable income typically adopt new technologies more slowly and cautiously. In this period, the importance of the Internet became widely known, and everybody has been joining in. At the same time, the costs of PCs and Internet access also have been trending down.

Among the races and ethnic groups, whites and Asians/Pacific Islanders have Internet participation shares higher than their shares in the population, as shown in the table on the following page, blacks and people of Hispanic origin have lower participation shares. But the gaps are closing.

Population Shares and Internet Participation Shares

Race/Ethnic Group	2000			2001
		Population %	Internet participation %	Population %	Internet participation %
White - non-Hispanic	71.5	81.0	71.0	78.9
Black - non-Hispanic	12.2	8.0	12.2	9.0
Asian/Pacific Islander	3.8	4.2	4.0	4.4
Hispanic Origin	11.8	6.3	12.1	7.1

This shows that while 59.9% of whites had Internet access in 2001, whites had 78.9% of all Internet collections. Another fact is shown: While non-Hispanic whites had a 71% share of the population, they had a 78.9% share of Internet Access. Blacks and Hispanics have some distance to go before they are as "wired" as the other two population groups.

Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Economics and Statistics Administration, National Telecommunications and Information Administration, A Nation Online: How Americans Are Expanding Their Use of the Internet, February 2002.