U.S. Hispanic Users Lag Behind non-Hispanics in Internet Adoption

Hispanics’ Internet use continues to lag behind that of the non-Hispanic U.S. population, according to research conducted by the Pew Hispanic Center. The report, titled “The Latino Digital Divide,” found that just 64 percent of Latinos over the age of 18 go online, compared with 78 percent of non-Latinos.

Additionally, Internet use among foreign-born Latinos lags significantly behind that of their U.S.-born counterparts, with 85 percent of native-born Latinos over 16 years of age claiming to use the Internet, compared with just 51 percent of foreign-born Latinos.

Among younger users, 95 percent of non-Hispanics ages 16 and 17 go online, as do 96 percent of those ages 18 to 25. Among Hispanics in both age groups, however, the Internet use rate stood at just 77 percent, according to the report.

The report was based primarily on a survey that was conducted from August 5 through September 16, 2009, among a randomly selected, nationally representative sample of 2,012 Hispanics.