Pittsburgh Plugged In

The fastest growing U.S. city in terms of its Internet population is not New York, Seattle or San Francisco, but Pittsburgh, according to data from Nielsen//NetRatings.

The online population in the Steel City jumped 20.4 percent from December 2000 to December 2001, giving Pittsburgh and online population of about 1.2 million.

Olympic host Salt Lake City took second place as its Internet population grew 20 percent to 973,000 surfers while the surfing population of Phoenix jumped 17 percent to 1.4 million. The Internet population of Raleigh, N.C. grew 13.4 percent over the year, reaching 821,000 surfers. Rounding out the top five fastest growing wired cities, Philadelphia posted a 12.8 percent increase to nearly 3.1 million Internet surfers.

“While large metropolitan areas such as San Francisco, Seattle and New York may have been earlier adopters of Internet technology, we are now seeing cities in middle America post considerable gains as those residents integrate the Web into their everyday lives,” said T.S. Kelly, director and principal analyst at NetRatings.

There’s even some evidence that the big jump in Pittsburgh’s online population could be partly attributable to its teenagers. A study by Digital Marketing Services, Inc. for America Online found that Pittsburgh is the top wired cities for teens in the United States based on time spent online.

The survey of more than 6,700 parents of teens and teens (age 12 to 17) found that Pittsburgh teens are online an average of 15.82 hours per week. The No. 10 wired city among teens is Milwaukee, where teens spend an average of 12.85 hours per week. The nationwide average for ages 12 to 17 is 12.28 hours per week.

Fastest Growing Wired Cities U.S., At-Home Users
Rank	Market	Unique Audience (000)		Percent Growth
		12/2000	12/2001
1.	Pittsburgh	1,027	1,237	20.4%
2.	Salt Lake City	811	973	20.0%
3.	Phoenix	1,228	1,437	17.0%
4.	Raleigh	724	821	13.4%
5.	Philadelphia	2,730	3,080	12.8%
6.	Cleveland	1,430	1,610	12.6%
7.	Minneapolis	1,481	1,647	11.2%
8.	Los Angeles	5,181	5,724	10.5%
9.	Kansas City	899	984	9.5%
10.	Detroit	1,821	1,971	8.2%
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings

Top U.S. Cities for Teens Online (ages 12 to 17)
Rank	City	Hour/Week Online
1.	Pittsburgh	15.82
2.	New York	14.90
3.	Cleveland	14.85
4.	San Diego	14.43
5.	Miami-Ft. Lauderdale	14.15
6.	Hartford & New Haven	13.38
7.	Los Angeles	13.31
8.	Detroit	13.13
9.	Philadelphia	12.88
10.	Milwaukee	12.85
Source: AOL/DMS