Households With a Computer · U.S. (1994–2012)

## What this measures

The share of U.S. households in which someone has or uses a computer at home, from the Current Population Survey's Computer and Internet Use Supplement, as published by NTIA. November 1994 to October 2012.

## Why it matters

Comparing how fast households and people took up earlier technologies gives a yardstick for how fast AI is being taken up. Each series counts something a little different (a household owning a computer, an adult using the internet, owning a smartphone, using a chatbot), so compare speeds and shapes, not exact levels.

## How to read it

Higher means more households had a computer. The share roughly tripled in 18 years, from 24% in 1994 to 79% in 2012.

## What it does not say

This series ends in 2012. In 2013 the survey began asking about desktops, laptops and tablets separately, and the share fell to 72%, a change in the question rather than in ownership, so later years are left out. It counts households, not people, and says nothing about how the computer was used.

## Source

NTIA Internet Use Survey Data Explorer (variable computerAtHome, universe: householders), from Census Bureau Current Population Survey supplements. U.S. Government work. https://www.ntia.gov/data/explorer