Saturday, December 17, 2022

What’s New in Digital Equity: Data Shows Digital Divide Progress - Jack Quaintance & Julia Edinger, GovTech

A new analysis of government data by the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society found that the United States as a whole is making some progress toward closing the digital divide. While experts in the space often say the digital divide is never going to be all the way closed — technology evolves too quickly for digital skills training to sufficiently keep up with it — there are some metrics you can look toward, including those related to broadband adoption. The analysis looked at data from the American Community Survey that showed wireline broadband adoption rose by 4.7 points between 2019 and 2021. That is more than twice the 2 points of growth that occurred between 2017 and 2019.