A Head's Up for the Marketing Folks

Five U.S cities have reached 50 percent Internet penetration among the adult population, according to Scarborough Research.

Washington, D.C. ranks No. 1 with 59.9 percent of the adult population online, followed by San Francisco (56.1 percent); Austin, TX (55.5 percent); Seattle (53.3 percent) and Salt Lake City (50.0 percent).

Scarborough said it measured Internet usage over a one-year period both at home and at work for these findings.

“Reaching the 50 percent threshold is a significant milestone for the Internet as it continues to mature into a mainstream medium,” said Scarborough president Bob Cohen. “It’s also noteworthy that we continue to see notable differences in Internet usage on a local market level, indicating that technological innovation is impacted by the interplay of local demographic, cultural, retail and media dynamics.”

Other major cities which fall under the 50 percent mark but trail closely behind the top Internet savvy cities: Los Angeles (48.7 percent), Boston (46.0 percent), Chicago (44.8 percent), New York (43.7 percent ) and Philadelphia (41.5 percent).