Angela Siefer
The National Digital Inclusion Alliance today releases two new rankings of America’s “25 Worst-Connected Cities in 2014” — for all households, and for households with annual incomes below $35,000.
Using data from the 2014 American Community Survey (ACS) released last Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau, NDIA ranked all 184 U.S. cities with more than 50,000 households by their percentages of households with no Internet at home. The ACS provides this data in Tables B28002 (“Presence and types of Internet subscriptions in household”) and B28004 (Household income in the last 12 months… by presence and types of Internet subscriptions in household”).
The 25 Worst-Connected Cities in terms of overall household Internet coverage range from Brownsville, Texas (45% of households with no Internet access) to Providence, Rhode Island (29%). Immediately below Brownsville on the list are Detroit, Jackson (MS), Laredo and Hialeah — all with overall non-connection rates above 35%.
Brownsville, Laredo and Detroit also lead the Worst-Connected list for households with incomes below $35,000 — each with more than 60% of its lower-income homes lacking Internet subscriptions.
