The Household High-Speed Dial-up Access Divide

Household access has become increasingly mainstream. Two in three households have Internet access at home (67 per cent), 52 per cent of households having had home access for more than two years. Further, high-speed home access has fast become the dominant way Canadians experience the Internet at home, with those households with high-speed access now outnumbering those without Internet access — 38 per cent have high-speed access, 33 per cent do not have household access at all.

In line with usage trends, not all Canadians are able to take equal advantage of this increasingly important home technology with household Internet access penetration varying significantly across subgroups:

• 42 per cent of lowest income households (less than $20K) and 89 per cent of highest income households ($100K or more) have household Internet access — a 47-percentage point divide.
• While close to four in five of those under 25 years of age (79 per cent) have household Internet access, only two in five seniors (40 per cent) have access at home.
• 54 per cent and 57 per cent of semi-skilled and labourers have household Internet access. This compares to 77 per cent and 75 per cent of those employed in professional and management positions.
• The divide between those with access to high-speed and those with dial-up is most pronounced between urban and rural households.
  
  
  • 43 per cent of urban households have high-speed household Internet access, 23 per cent have dial-up, 3 per cent “Other/unidentified”.
  • Fewer than half the number of rural households (19 per cent) have high-speed access at home, 38 per cent have dial-up, 3 per cent “Other/unidentified”.