Adults Using the Internet · U.S.

## What this measures

The share of U.S. adults who use the internet from any location, from the Current Population Survey's Computer and Internet Use Supplement, as published by NTIA. December 1998 to November 2023, roughly every two years.

## 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 adults use the internet. It rose from 35% in 1998 to 85% in 2023, quickly at first and then slowly; the last adults to come online are the hardest to reach.

## What it does not say

It counts any use, however occasional, at home, work, school or elsewhere. The survey's questions changed in 2013 (2012: 76.9%, 2013: 74.4%), so small moves around that year are not real declines. It starts in 1998, a few years after the commercial internet began.

## Source

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