6 Rural Digital Divide Statistics That Show How Serious the Problem Is

The digital divide in rural America has been an issue that many have been aware of for years now. We all have a vague notion of how rural communities have a worse connection because we think that it has an understandable root cause. Rural communities are more remote, and that contributes to worse connection problems. That’s how the thinking usually goes.

However, it is in the context of statistics that really lay bare just how bad the problem is, and how in this day and age, when we are upgrading our network infrastructure toward 5G connection, it is absolutely unacceptable that this problem still persists.

So here are 6 rural digital divide statistics in the US that show just how serious this problem really is.

1. More Rural Adults Never Go Online Compared to Urban or Suburban Adults

   You may think that the reason why more rural adults never go online compared to urban or suburban adults is that they are more traditional in terms of technology. But hold that thought because there are always two sides to the story. What if fewer rural adults go online because they don’t have any service coverage that makes sense for them. It is very possible that the lack of supply is what is causing this despite high demand. Considering that, this statistic is a sobering sign of just how terrible the rural digital divide is.

2. Far Less Rural Americans Have Access to High-Speed Fixed Internet Service

Access to quality internet service is never doubted in urban areas, and that is reflected by the fact that 97% of urban Americans have access to high-speed fixed internet service. However, you go out to the rural countries, and suddenly good internet is not a utility, but it is a luxury. In fact, even if you can pay for it, you may not have it because there is no coverage. To have nearly 1/3 of rural Americans not have access to high-speed internet service seems ridiculous, but that is the reality.

3. Less Rural Adults Have Home Broadband

Home broadband is a very common utility for urban and suburban areas, and in the day and age of the pandemic, it’s become much more essential. We use our home internet to stream TV shows and movies, to talk with our friends and family face-to-face virtually, and for various other purposes that have become inseparable from our lives. For nearly 1/3 of rural adults to not have home broadband is unthinkable.

4. Rural Americans Lack Access to High-Speed Internet Service

The average download speed across the US is around 124.1 Mbps, with many service providers giving out download speeds that exceed a gigabyte per second. So for 39% of rural Americans to not have even a fifth of that speed available to them is an atrocity. In comparison, only 4% of urban Americans lack such high-speed internet service. Rural Americans need the kind of speed that they can rely on to enjoy their life and get their work done.

5. More Rural Adults Feel that High-Speed Internet is an Issue

It may seem like that there just isn’t enough demand in rural areas for high-speed internet, and that adults in these communities are simply okay with putting up with slower service. But not at all. According to the Pew Research Center, more rural adults express lacking high-speed internet as a problem than those in urban or suburban areas, and this makes sense. You need high-speed internet these days to do virtually anything, from work, education, to entertainment and beyond. With US agriculture increasingly adapting to the digital age, it makes sense that this would be a huge pain point for rural residents.

6. Health Care Facilities Outside Urban Areas Lack Broadband Access

This is a big one because good medical care is so essential no matter what area you live in. Yet, to know that 60% of health care facilities outside metropolitan areas lack broadband access is absolutely mind-boggling. Having a good connection enables staff to be more efficient and better at their jobs. Not only that, it enables better sharing of information across different facilities, which can improve the level of care. This is an absolutely unacceptable facet of the current problem of the digital divide occurring across the US.

Fortunately, it’s getting better.

Thanks to government initiatives such as the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) from the Federal Communications Commission, which has pledged billions into a massive broadband push across rural communities, we are gradually coming to better understand and address the issue of the rural digital divide. However, the way is still far, and with continuous innovation, it may end up that rural communities only are able to barely catch up while urban areas move toward next-generation technologies. Thus, we must be vigilant about this topic and understand that investing in our rural communities more is the only way to truly bring them to the 21st century alongside the rest of us.