Can You Believe It? One Fifth of U.S. Households Have Never Used Email!

Because we are so, so connected, we think everybody else is too … But a new survey finds a substantial number of households have not crossed the “Digital Divide.”

According to National Technology Scan, a forthcoming study from Parks Associates (an annual phone survey of U.S. households) found 20 million households are without Internet access, representing approximately 18% of all U.S. households.

According to Parks Associates, nearly one out of three household heads has never used a computer to create a document, underscoring the significant digital divide between the connected majority and the homes in the unconnected minority that rarely, if ever, use a computer.

Age and education are factors in this divide — 50% of those who have never used e-mail are over 65, and 56 percent had no schooling beyond high school.

National Technology Scan found just 7% seven percent of the 20 million “disconnected” homes plan to subscribe to an Internet service within the next 12 months. Still, the study reports a steady decline in the number of disconnected households when compared to findings from previous years. National Technology Scan reported at year-end 2006 that 29% of all U.S. households (31 million homes) did not have Internet access, citing low perceived value of the Internet.