• 63% of Americans now go online — last measured in our August 2003 survey.
• That amounts to 47% growth in the U.S. adult population using the Internet, from 86 million in March 2000 to 126 million in August 2003.
• 52% of Internet users go online on a typical day, as of August 2003. That figure amounts to 66 million people and has grown from 52 million who were online during a typical day in March 2000.
• 87% of U.S. Internet users said they have access at home, and 48% said they have access at work in our August survey.
•  25% said they use the Internet at times from some place other than home or work in our March–May 2003 survey.
• 31% of Internet users who go online from home have broadband as of August 2003.
• African-Americans and seniors are among least likely to go online.
• Internet use is strongly tied to higher levels of education and household income.
• Parents are more likely than non-parents to use the Internet.

With fewer new users logging on, the Internet population matures

When the Pew Internet & American Life Project first started measuring Internet usage in March 2000, 46% of American adults (roughly 86 million people) had logged on to access the Web or to send and receive email. That portion was more than three times the size of the online population documented by the Pew Research Center for The People & The Press in 1995 — just 14% of Americans were identified as “online users” at that time.⁵

Internet use proliferated through the late 1990s and into 2000. By August 2003, the Pew Internet Project’s survey found that 63% of American adults were online. Taking the overall growth of the U.S. population into account, that represented an estimated 126 million people, up 47% from the 86 million who were online in our first survey in March 2000.

However, most of that growth occurred over the course of 2000 and slowed dramatically in the fall of 2001 and thereafter, suggesting that the dramatic growth of Web use in America had tapered off. As the Internet increasingly became a part of everyday life for Americans, there were no longer droves of new users rushing online. Instead, small fluctuations in the overall population indicated that as new people came online, others were dropping off. This flattening trend appeared across all demographic groups and not just among those who were early adopters and have reached high penetration levels, such as upper-income and upper-education groups.

The same slowing has also been evident among those who use the Internet on a typical day. While these “daily” users grew by over 10 million Americans between March 2000 and December 2002, the proportion of all Internet users who go online on an average day remained slightly under 3 in 5 throughout 2002.

The percentage of Internet users who said they went online “yesterday” in our surveys is also referred to as those who go online on a “typical day.”

Over time, levels of Internet experience have shifted as well. In March 2000, 18% of Internet users had been online for 6 months or less, 21% had been online for 1 year, 33% for 2-3 years, and 28% had used the Internet for more than 3 years. In contrast, our December 2002 data revealed that the large majority of online Americans had reached “veteran” status; just 1% had used the Internet for less than a year, 6% for about 1 year, 23% for 2-3 years, and 68% had been online for more than 3 years. And most recently, when we surveyed in August 2003, 2% had used the Internet for less than a year, 5% for about 1 year, 19% for 2-3 years and 74% had been online for more than 3 years.

The way people connect to the Internet has also evolved. Though most online Americans still log on from home (87% of U.S. Internet users had access at home and 48% had access at work in our August 2003 survey), about a third are doing so with high-speed connections. That translates to roughly 39 million American adults who now have some type of high-speed access at home (as of August 2003). In comparison, 25% of home Internet users said they had high-speed connections in our December 2002 survey, and just 6% of home Internet users had broadband when we first started asking about it in June 2000.

During the formative stages of Web use, men were much more prominent in the online world than women. According to Pew Research Center from 1995, 18% of adult men were online in America, while only 10% of adult women were Internet users. Women have since reached parity within the population of Internet users. In August of this year, 65% of men and 61% of women were online. Since there are more women in the United States than men, this meant that the Internet population was about 51% female.  However, male Internet users have been more likely than online women to access the Web on a typical day.

Change has also occurred in the racial and ethnic composition of the Internet population. Whites predominated in the mid-1990s, minorities saw high growth rates at the turn of the century, and the growth in all groups slowed in 2002. Whites hit 63% for Internet penetration in January 2002, dipped somewhat in the months after that, then hit 64% in August 2003. English-speaking Hispanic users, who demonstrated marked growth, reached 61% in September 2002 and then 62% in August 2003.⁶ Overall, African-Americans have also exhibited considerable growth over the past 3 years, but their penetration rates still remain well below whites and Hispanics. In December of 2002 45% of African-Americans said they were online, and in August 2003, 51% said so.

When it comes to age, those who are 18-29 have been among the most wired demographic groups from the onset of Internet growth. By March 2000 when we began our surveys, 64% of these young adults were already online, which compared to 56% of 30- to 49-year olds, 36% of the 50-64 age group, and 12% of those aged 65 and over. Internet use among young adults blossomed over the next 2 years and reached 80% penetration in January of 2002. It then contracted back to 72% by December of that year, but rose back up to 83% in August 2003. The 30-49 age group also leveled off over 2002, so that 67% were online in December. But by August of this year, 73% of 30- to 49-year olds said they used the Internet. Similarly, the 50- to 64-year olds stabilized at exactly 55% for all but one survey period during 2002 but then grew to 59% in our August survey. The least wired age group, those 65 and over, has come online slowly but steadily since 2000, and showed only negligible growth over the course of 2002 and 2003 — 20% of seniors were online in December 2002, and 22% reported use of the Internet in our August 2003 survey.

Other demographics confirm the slowdown in Internet growth.

The data from the various education and income groups further confirms the slowed growth of the online population in 2002. Of particular note was a decline in the number of people with less than a high school degree who are online. Thirty-one percent said they were online in our January 2002 survey, while just 19% said they were Internet users in December 2002. By our August 2003 survey, those with less than a high school degree had gone back up to 26%, but that is still less than half the percentage of high school graduates who said they use the Internet.

We have repeatedly found in our research that those with higher income and education levels are much more likely to be Internet users. As was noted in our “Ever-Shifting Internet Population” report⁷, when income is considered independent of all other factors, having a household income above $50,000 annually predicts Internet use. Similarly, a high level of education was also shown to be a strong predictor of Internet use.

Parents have time and again been more likely to access the Internet than non-parents; 55% of parents and 42% of non-parents said they were online in our March 2000 survey compared to 75% of parents and 57% of non-parents who reported usage in August 2003.