As of 2025, about 9 in 10 Americans use the internet daily

As of 2025, about 16% of US adults are 'smartphone-only' internet users

Demographically, smartphone dependency is greatest among those below 30, Hispanics, Blacks, economically disadvantaged individuals, and those with less formal education. Home broadband adoption is at 78%, with rates highest among suburban residents.

As of 2025, about 16% of US adults are 'smartphone-only' internet users

Demographically, smartphone dependency is greatest among those below 30, Hispanics, Blacks, economically disadvantaged individuals, and those with less formal education. Home broadband adoption is at 78%, with rates highest among suburban residents.

View the countries with the most internet users, including 94% of those in high-income nations

As of 2025, the four most populous nations—China, India, the US, and Indonesia—are also the ones with the most internet users, collectively accounting for almost half of the 6.04 billion internet users worldwide. This suggests that population size, rather than adoption rate, is a better predictor of online activity.

1 in 5 American adults report daily loneliness

Twenty percent of US adults said they felt lonely "a lot of the day yesterday" in Gallup polling conducted in 2024. The survey was conducted with more than 6,000 adults who took part in a web survey.

40% of Americans didn't read a book in 2025, with 19% of adults responsible for 82% of the country's book reading.

The decline of the landline in the US

It costs 35% less to maintain AT&T's fiber subscribers than it does to keep up its legacy copper lines, a big difference leading the major phone company to plan to end its copper lines by 2030. Tens of millions of households still utilize a landline phone in the US, but they've been trending downward for at least two decades as people have gone wireless. Learn the trends and see the data visualized in this article.

Which countries have the fastest internet speeds?

Ever wonder about how fast internet speeds are around the world? Take a look at this graphic which lists out the countries with the highest mobile internet speeds in 2023. Countries in the Middle East and East Asia dominate the list while America lags behind in eighteenth place. Learn more about why a high-income country like the US fall behind in speed, and why other countries are internet powerhouses.

Virtually all public libraries in the US offer free internet access

Beyond providing internet access, libraries have also expanded into broad digital hubs for communities. Ninety percent offer basic digital literacy training, 76% help patrons navigate online government services, and 73% assist people with job applications.

Explore internet usage data, including how humans consume 1.2 billion years of content yearly

About half this time consists of content from social media platforms, where the average user spends about 18.5 hours weekly. An estimated $3.66T was spent on consumer goods by online shoppers in 2025, though nonconsumer goods, such as flights and hotel stays, greatly increase this estimate.

Rural vs. urban: Exploring the digital health divide

Though digital health tools (DHT) hold potential to transform healthcare accessibility, their adoption varies across urban and rural landscapes. This comprehensive study, drawing from the 2019 Health Information National Trends Survey, evaluates the...

Testing the internet speed of the US's wireless providers

The US ranked 26th in the world for mobile speeds and eigth for fixed broadband speeds during April 2022. See this ranking of mobile and fixed broadband speeds from around the world on a monthly basis.

62% of online shoppers search for coupons or discount codes before making a purchase

Capital One estimates that 169.2 million Americans redeemed digital coupons in 2025. The bank compiled many different coupon statistics on how both shoppers and businesses used coupons last year, most of which reveal the increasing dominance of digital coupons over physical ones.

US depression rates at historic high among adults

More than 18% of US adults reported that they currently have or are being treated for depression in both 2024 and 2025. In the 2025 survey, more than 11,000 adults were surveyed. The numbers have ticked upward since 2015—by about 8 percentage points—with most of the increase occurring from the 2020 pandemic onward.

Despite the popularity of podcasts, most US adults still listen to radio

A 2026 survey found that 84% of adults aged 25-64 report listening to the radio weekly. That's more than double the number of those who listen to podcasts.

In a spring 2026 survey, more Americans said they support a ban on students using cellphones during the entire school day than oppose it.

Roughly 62% of US adults under 30 say they use TikTok

A Pew Research Center publication reports that most members of Gen Z use the app. That's significantly more than other age groups: 39% for those ages 30 to 49, 24% for those 50 to 64, and 10% for those 65 and older.

See the religious breakdown of the US from 2007 to 2024.

See a ranking of the most popular websites on the World Wide Web from 1995 to 2023

America Online's homepage was the most popular website through mid-2021, when the Yahoo homepage took over and, shortly afterward, became the first website to reach 1 billion monthly visits. It would not be dethroned until early 2006 by Google, a major player in the search engine market.

25% of US households had no regular income as of 2024

Some states had higher shares of no-income households than others: West Virginia, for instance, had a national high of 34% of households with no income. These states tend to have older populations, higher rates of disability, and lower median incomes overall. In such contexts, a larger portion of households rely on non-earned income sources or report no income during the survey period.

About 17% of US adults said they had invested, traded, or used cryptocurrency in 2023.

How many Americans receive government assistance?

In 2022, nearly half of all American children—and roughly one in three Americans overall—were enrolled in at least one government assistance program. Those programs provide support for people who cannot afford healthcare, food, housing, or other needs. Find out more about the number of Americans receiving government assistance here.

Americans are reading fewer books than in the past

A 2022 Gallup survey found that Americans are reading fewer books than ever before. An additional study found that the time people spend reading has dropped over the last 20 years. The most compelling narrative for the shift? Screens have stolen potential readers, occupying the time that they otherwise would’ve spent with books.

Americans are retiring later than they used to

A Gallup poll from 2022 found that the percentage of adults between the ages of 55 and 74 who are retired is declining.

Most Americans are now dying at home, reversing 20th century trends

For most of the 21st and 20th centuries most Americans died in hospital settings. But in 2016, home-based deaths overtook hospitals; most Americans are now dying at home, likely fueled by individual preferences to die at home or to receive at-home palliative care.

Roughly 75% of Americans report feeling okay financially

Since 2022, fewer Americans report feeling worse off financially, moving from 35% in 2022 to 28% in 2025. Likewise, the number of Americans who reported feeling better about the economy is up 4% from 2022. More than 90% of Americans cite price increases as their biggest financial concern.

YouTube occupies more US screen time than Netflix

As consumers continue to shift their viewing activity away from traditional cable and broadcast TV, they’re spending an increasing amount of time streaming content, much of it on YouTube. In fact, Nielsen data from August 2025, shows that YouTube accounted for 13.1% of US screen time, compared to Netflix’s 8.7%.

30% of Americans make New Year's resolutions

The practice is more popular among younger people: In a Pew Research Center study, nearly half of people under 30 reported making at least one resolution. The majority of Americans (of all ages) who didn’t make resolutions said they simply don’t like the tradition.

Although no longer the dominant format, CDs are increasingly popular with younger people.

A poll from May 2025 found that a majority of Americans oppose ending birthright citizenship

As legal challenges progressed, a May 2025 NPR/Ipsos poll showed fewer than one-third of Americans supported eliminating birthright citizenship, despite broader public backing for other immigration restrictions.

Renting versus owning a home, charted by age

One-third of American households are rented. The other two-thirds are owned or in the process of becoming owned, according to 2022 data from the American Community Survey. While most people rent in their younger years, homeownership rates tend to fluctuate based on age. To see home ownership and renter rates charted by age, check out these charts.

The Atlantic proclaimed that 'The End of Reading is Here,' which might be alarmist but is based on significant data.

Apple Pay is activated on more than 78% of US iPhones

As a result, some banks worry they could be losing ground to the tech company. As consumers continue to use Apple Pay instead of pulling out their physical debit card to pay for everyday items, some banks are fighting back in the digital wallet war.

45% of Americans have no access to public transit

Most US transit was built on a monocentric design, funneling riders into a downtown center. But today's most common commute is from suburb to suburb, meaning the system is built for a work pattern that no longer exists.

Between 2003 and 2023, nearly 5M Americans lived in food deserts, elevating their risk for conditions linked to unhealthy nutrition, including cancer, heart disease, and diabetes.

Over 35% of remote-capable US workers worked from home 'all the time' in 2023

With more than 1.3 million remote workers, the New York City metropolitan area had more remote workers than any of the top 30 metro areas in the US at the time. However, the Austin, Texas, metro area had the largest share of remote workers, with more than 23% of the city's workforce working remotely.

The dark web makes up about 0.01% of all the data on the internet

The surface web (5%-10%) consists of indexed sites—those traditional search engines have visited and stored so users can discover them via web search. The remaining 90%-95% makes up the deep web, which is not indexed and includes email and banking portals that require login credentials. The dark web is unindexed and requires anonymizing software to visit.

Calculate whether or not you're in the American middle class

In 2022, roughly 52% of US adults lived in middle-income households. This income calculator can help you determine whether or not you're one of them. Specifically, the calculator lets you enter your household income, location, and more to see where you line up in Pew's government data.

More than half of American adults believe in the afterlife

It’s hard to find actual data regarding ghosts, but a survey conducted by Pew Research Group in 2023, revealed that around half of the US adult population believes ghosts can interact with the living, with most thinking that spirits can help rather than harm us.

A larger share of LGBTQ+ individuals use dating apps than their straight counterparts

Roughly a quarter of LGBTQ+ adults reported using a dating app in the past year as of 2022. The trend seems to have persisted as the years have gone on, with apps like Grindr geared toward the community seeing significant revenue growth in recent quarters as of 2025.

Three ways the US population will change over the next decade

This article lists the top three ways the US population will change over the next decade. Using population data from the US Census Bureau and the UN Population Division, the piece explores what America might look like 10 years from now, which...

See a chart that shows how the average American spends their annual earnings, with almost half of all American consumer spending going toward transportation and housing.

1 in 5 Americans get local news from the radio

According to a 2023 Pew Research Center report, radio remains the second most popular medium for local news, remaining a vital source for local concerns. Audiences for national public radio, however, have declined, with listenership for NPR-affiliated stations down 10%.

35% of polled Americans said they'd view people differently if they knew they had a mental illness.

As of 2025, the internet is entering its fourth phase, with three more to go

Since the inception of the internet as a tool for connecting teams of researchers, technological and infrastructure advancements have progressively increased connectivity. Connections between computers, mobile devices, all devices, and now AI agents will be succeeded by an internet that integrates perception and the senses toward an eventual quantum internet.

Americans think being informed is a priority for voting, but don't prioritize reading the news.

Nearly 9 in 10 Americans were annoyed by tipping as of 2025

That’s a sharp increase from the 75% who thought tipping culture had gone too far in 2024. One potential culprit? The proliferation of tipping screens in places outside sit-down restaurants, such as coffee shops and hair salon. Three in 10 Americans say they give less when presented with tipping screens.

About 63% of employees making $100K+ salaries can work from home sometimes or always

However, only 38% of those making $50K to $100K can do the same. Some have pointed out that working from home is increasingly inaccessible to blue-collar workers and those who did not attend elite higher education institutions, furthering America's class divide.

A 2020 study suggests just 6.7% of Tor network users visit sites on the dark web

It did not distinguish between visits to malicious sites and traffic to legitimate institutions with .onion domains, such as the BBC or Buzzfeed, and thus claimed that 6.7% of anonymized users engage in nefarious activity. The low percentage still highlights that most users of the technology underlying the dark web do not use it to browse the hidden portion of the internet.

View a map of US data center infrastructure in 2025

Thousands of data centers across the country have already been built, with more under construction or planned. Facilities are connected via transmission and fiber optic lines, with the latter spanning an estimated length of 160 million miles.

Only 14% of transactions are in cash, as of 2025

Credit (35%) and debit (30%) cards have long eclipsed cash as the primary method of payment in the US. It is a primary backup, however, with 90% of customers intending to use cash to pay or store value and 80% carrying cash.