Pew Study Shows Over Half of U.S. Hispanics Go Online

By A�da Bardales -- Críticas, 4/1/2007

Last month, the Pew Hispanic Center and Pew Internet & American Life Project released the results of a study on how Hispanics and U.S. Latinos use the Internet. (The terms “Latino” and “Hispanic” were interchangeably used in the report.) The report shows that 56 percent of the adult Hispanic population in the United States goes online, compared to 71 percent of non-Hispanic whites and 60 percent of non-Hispanic blacks.

Differences in education levels and English proficiency were considered major factors contributing to the gap in Internet usage between Hispanics and non-Hispanics. The report stated that Internet use is much higher among English-dominant (78 percent) and bilingual (76 percent) Latinos than Spanish-speaking Hispanics (32 percent) with limited or no English skills. However, when levels of language and education are equal, Internet usage is the same between Hispanics and non-Hispanics.

When nationality was considered, results showed that 76 percent of U.S.-born Latinos go online, as opposed to only 43 percent of Hispanics born in Latin America or Spain. Of all immigrant Hispanics in this country, those born in Mexico and Central America are the least likely to go online (52 percent and 50 percent, respectively), whereas 70 percent of South Americans in the United States use the Internet (the survey did not show a breakdown by country).

The Pew Hispanic Center and Pew Internet Project conducted the surveys by telephone in 2006. To read the full report, go to http://pewhispanic.org/files/reports/73.pdf.