EMBARGOED UNTIL: 12:01 A.M. EDT, OCTOBER 14, 1999 (THURSDAY)
Public Information Office CB99-194
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e-mail: pio@census.gov
Eric Newburger
301-457-2464
Computer Use Up Sharply; One in Five Americans
Uses Internet, Census Bureau Says
About one-half of the nation's population age 18 and over used
computers in 1997, up significantly from 36 percent in 1993 and 18 percent
in 1984, according to a report released today by the Commerce Department's
Census Bureau.
Access to the Internet is one reason for the big increase in computer
use in the last decade as 1 in 5, or 57 million people, 3-years old and
older surfed the 'Net in 1997.
"The Internet will play a major role in disseminating social, economic
and housing information collected in Census 2000," said Census Bureau
Director Kenneth Prewitt. "Modern technology will make it possible to get
Census 2000 statistics in the hands of data users faster and more
efficiently than ever before."
About 92 million adults (47 percent) used a computer in one or more
places: 64 million at work, 56 million at home and 11 million at school.
Of the adults who used computers at home, 71 percent did so for word
processing. Other common uses included games (54 percent) and e-mail and
communication (45 percent).
About 8 in 10 adults who used the Internet at home used it for e-mail or
for finding government, business, health or education information. The
next most common uses were looking for news, weather and sports
(50 percent); followed by checking schedules, buying tickets or making
reservations (25 percent).
Children who used the Internet at home used it to find government,
business, health or education information (76 percent); to send and
receive e-mail (58 percent); to participate in chat rooms (32 percent);
and to look for news, weather and sports (28 percent).
Census Bureau analyst Eric Newburger said, "Public school students in
grades K-12 maintained parity with private school students in computer use
at school in 1997. In each case, about 75 percent of the students used
computers. Yet, at home, public school children had much lower rates of
computer use than private school children."
The report, Computer Use in the United States: October 1997,
includes detailed tables with characteristics of households, children and
adults, by the presence of computers in the home, whether or not they use
computers and their access to the Internet.
Other findings from the report include:
Adult Computer Use
- Half of employed adults used a computer on the job.
- Women used computers on the job more often than men, 57 percent
versus 44 percent.
- Men and women used computers at work for different tasks. For
example, 60 percent of women who used computers at work used them
for word processing, compared to 54 percent of men. But, a higher
proportion of men used the computer for analysis (34 percent
versus 20 percent of women) or programming (20 percent versus 11
percent).
Adult Internet Use
- Of the 43 million adults who used the Internet at home, school or
work, 28 million did so from home, 21 million from work and 6
million from school.
- More men than women used the Internet, 25 percent versus 20
percent.
- Men using the Internet at home were more likely than women to look
for news, weather, or sports (58 percent versus 41 percent). Men
more often than women looked at news groups (21 percent and 13
percent) and men checked schedules, bought tickets or made
reservations more frequently (27 percent and 23 percent).
Children's Computer Use
- In 1997, half of all children had a computer at home compared with
32 percent in 1993.
- About 71 percent of children enrolled in school used a computer at
school.
- Only 20 percent of children with family incomes under $25,000 lived
in a household with a computer, while 88 percent of those with
family incomes above $75,000 had a computer at home.
Children's Internet Use
- Of the 14 million children using the Internet, 9 million did so at
school and 7 million at home. While 2 million children used the
Internet at both home and school, more than half (7 million) of
all children accessing the Internet used it at school only.
- Among all children, regardless of computer ownership, 27 percent of
those in households with family incomes above $75,000 used the
Internet from home, compared with 2 percent of children in
households with family incomes below $25,000. But for children
from the highest income households (above $75,000), 20 percent used
the Internet from school, compared with 12 percent from the lowest
income households (below $25,000).
The data are from the 1997, 1993 and 1984 supplements to the Current
Population Survey. Statistics from sample surveys are subject to sampling
and nonsampling error.
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