Fewer than one-third of Spanish dominant adults in this country are logging onto the Internet – one of the largest ethnic gaps in the digital divide that experts have seen.
Latinos are also among the least likely groups to go online, according to findings of a new report released Wednesday by the Pew Hispanic Center and Pew Internet & American Life Project.
The report, written by Susannah Fox and Gretchen Livingston, paints one of the clearest pictures to date into Internet usage by ethnicity and authors said the information could be useful to companies interested in serving the Spanish-speaking/Latino demo
“Internet access is almost an assumption,” said Fox, an associate director with the Pew Internet & American Life Project. “I hope [the report] makes people notice that there are still groups of adults in this country who do not have access to it.”
The report found:
32 percent of Spanish dominant adults log onto the Internet compared to 76 percent of Latinos who are bilingual and 78 percent who are English-dominant.
29 percent of Latino adults have a broadband connection at home compared with 43 percent of white adults.
56 percent of all Latinos go online – a sharp contrast from 71 percent of non-Latino whites. Sixty percent of non-Latino blacks use the Internet.
Fox and Livingston began working on the report after noticing other studies hadn’t focused enough on Latinos’ Internet usage and had largely considered those who spoke English.
Online resources
“For many people living in the U.S., the Internet is the go-to source for information and for staying in touch with friends and family,” Fox said. “We find that significant portions of the population are cut off from online resources.”
The survey was based on telephone surveys of more than 6,000 Latino adults conducted in both Spanish and English last year. Respondents were asked several questions – including their level of education and household income – to make better comparisons with other groups.
Several socioeconomic factors play a key role in the disparities – language barriers, lower levels of education and higher levels of poverty.
The report found that Internet access is low among Latinos, whites and blacks who did not graduate from high school (although the Latino non-graduation rate is much higher).
It also found that whites and blacks earn more money per year than Latino participants – possibly resulting in the higher level of Internet access.
Expert David Wellisch said the report underscores much of what industry insiders suspected about the ethnic group and the market is ripe with opportunity for those companies that are willing.
“The digital divide is driven by the educational and the income gap,” said Wellisch, founder of America Online Latino. “To truly make a difference [in closing the divide] you must be very proactive.”
Closing the gap
Wellisch helped run AOL Latino for three years until September, when he left to form a consulting firm.
He knows closing the gap would be “a big mountain” to tackle, but it could happen if companies selling computers and broadband connections reach out to Latinos.
“This is clearly an under-served market,” he said, adding that companies could do more to better understand the population and its unique needs.
Among other things, companies could offer payment plans and market broadband connections to the group the way mobile companies have marketed cellular phones.
While the report overwhelmingly shows that Internet access is low among Latinos, it also shows usage is rapidly increasingly among those born in this country whose parents are immigrants.
It shows that 80 percent of second-generation Latinos go online, along with 71 percent of third-generation.
“The balance among Latinos could swing within a few generations,” Livingston, a research associate at the Pew Hispanic Center, said in a statement. “The sons and daughters of immigrants are flocking online.”
Contact Javier Erik Olvera at jolvera@mercurynews.com or (408) 920-5704
