Paper Type
ERF
Abstract
Digital divide and exclusion continue to be among the intractable global challenges. Even in a relatively prosperous nation like the United States, the severity of the problem and its effects have not shown much improvement. We analyzed the influence of income, income distribution, education levels, and ethnicity on levels of access to Internet using the 2016 US census data census data at the county level. Our results indicate that these variables correlate significantly with levels of Internet access. As well, certain combinations of variables such as low levels of education (below middle school) and high percentage of people below the poverty line tend to lead to higher proportion of people with no Internet access. Some of the implications of the results are discussed.
Recommended Citation
Davis, Joseph G.; Kuan, Kevin K.Y.; and Poon, Simon, "Digital Exclusion and Divide in the United States: Exploratory Empirical Analysis of Contributing Factors" (2020). AMCIS 2020 Proceedings. 1.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/amcis2020/social_inclusion/social_inclusion/1
Digital Exclusion and Divide in the United States: Exploratory Empirical Analysis of Contributing Factors
Digital divide and exclusion continue to be among the intractable global challenges. Even in a relatively prosperous nation like the United States, the severity of the problem and its effects have not shown much improvement. We analyzed the influence of income, income distribution, education levels, and ethnicity on levels of access to Internet using the 2016 US census data census data at the county level. Our results indicate that these variables correlate significantly with levels of Internet access. As well, certain combinations of variables such as low levels of education (below middle school) and high percentage of people below the poverty line tend to lead to higher proportion of people with no Internet access. Some of the implications of the results are discussed.
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