Roughly seven in 10 households in the Baton Rouge metro area had broadband Internet access as of last year. And although access grew by 0.8 percentage points from 2013 to 70.5% last year, a new report from the Brookings Institution shows Internet access here lags behind the U.S. average and is not expanding as rapidly as in most American metro areas.
Across the U.S, roughly 87 million households had a broadband Internet subscription last year, or 75.1% of all households, up 1.7 percentage points from the year previous. Of the nation’s largest 100 metro areas, 58 equalled or surpassed the 1.7 percentage point growth in access between 2013 and 2014. Baton Rouge—as well as New Orleans, which saw 1.4 percentage point growth to 68.6% last year—is among the 42 other metro area that saw a small or no increase.
The Brookings report says broadband Internet subscriptions remain highly uneven among specific groups, which is limiting opportunities for many people.
“For example, only 46.8% of households with incomes under $20,000 annually had a broadband subscription in 2014, compared to 88.8% of households earning $50,000 or more,” reads the report. “Likewise, while 54.1% of individuals with less than a high school diploma had a broadband subscription, 91.5% with a bachelor’s degree or higher did. Relatively low adoption rates also appear among older age groups—64.5% of individuals 65 years and older—while those not in the labor force (69.7%) subscribe to broadband at marginally lower rates relative to the national average.”
The San Jose, California, metro area is home to the nation’s highest share of household Internet subscriptions, at 88.2%, the report says, while Laredo, Texas, has the lowest share, at 56.2%.
—Steve Sanoski
