Digital divide decreasing but not gone

The digital divide in the United States has decreased significantly since 2000, with rates of Internet use and the advantages it brings increasing significantly across the entire population.

But those without high school diplomas, African-Americans, Hispanics and people living in lower-income households still lag when it comes to accessing the online world.

Going online is a crucial component of modern life, said Lee Rainie, director of Internet, science and technology research at the Pew Research Center, which conducted the study.

When asked about going online, people talk about "how the Internet enables them to engage with their family and friends, find new communities of interest, get news and contribute their own information, locate high-quality health information, participate in politics and interact with government, learn new things, and use resources that help them do their jobs better," he said.

As of 2015, 84% of American adults use the Internet, a survey released Friday by the Pew Research Center found.

Those living in households earning more than $75,000 and English-speaking Asian Americans have the highest rates of Internet use, at 97%.

Next came Americans aged 18 to 29, at 96% and college-educated adults at 95%.

"There are two broad trends in these data," said Maeve Duggan, a research associate at the Pew Research Center. "The first is that the groups traditionally leading the way in tech adoption – the young, highly educated and relatively well off – are now nearly all internet users."

But while groups traditionally less likely to be early adopters have steadily increased their Internet use, "digital differences still remain," she said.

In 2015, 66% of people who hadn't completed high school were online. That's up from just 19% in 2000 but still lags significantly from the 95% of college educated Americans who are.

Hispanics and African-Americans are somewhat less likely than whites and English-speaking Asian-Americans to be online.

Among Hispanics, 81% are online. For African-Americans, the figure is 78%. Eighty-five percent of whites are online.

Men and women have achieved parity when it comes to Internet use, with 85% of men and 84% of women reporting they are online.

Americans who live in rural areas are slightly less likely to be online than their suburban or urban compatriots, 78% as compared to 85% for city and suburban dwellers.

Seniors have increased their Internet use significantly. In 2000 just 14% of those 65 and older were online. Today that figure is 58%.

The results are from a compilation of 97 surveys and more than 229,000 interviews conducted by Pew Research Center from March 2000 to May 2015.