A digital divide separates rural America from the rest of the nation with it comes to broadband Internet use and, perhaps, access.

While demographics plays a large role in broadband use decisions in the geographic hinterlands of cities, availability is also be a factor contributing to the fact that only 24 percent of adults in rural America have high-speed net access, compared to 38 percent of urbanites and 40 percent of suburbanites who have access.

That means home buyers looking to live in rural America may either have to forego broadband access for now or be prepared for the added cost of special improvements.

"Rural broadband users are no different than home high-speed users elsewhere; they go online more often and do more online activities than dial-up users," said John B. Horrigan, associate director of the Pew Internet Project and principal author of "Rural Broadband Internet Use".

The study compares broadband Internet use by geographic location from 2001 to 2005, with the latest numbers based on the Project's combined September-December 2005 surveys of 5,262 Americans, 3,508 of whom were Internet users.

"But with a lower proportion of broadband users in rural America than elsewhere, the result is that rural Americans, in aggregate, have a more distant relationship with the Internet than urban and suburban Americans," Horrigan added.

The study says the broadband use gap between rural and other households -- 24 percent less -- is less than half what it was five years ago -- 66 percent less.

The overall rural-vs.-all others Internet use (broadband and dialup) gap is much smaller, 8 percent, with 62 percent of adult rural Americans with Internet access, compared with 70 percent of adults in urban and suburban locales.

The study says rural households are less likely to have broadband access primarily because of three demographic factors associated with rural residents and Internet use.

• Rural America has a greater share of older Americans and older Americans go online at lower rates than other age groups. Fully 43 percent of rural Americans are over the age of 50 (and 18 percent are over age 65) while 38 percent of non-rural Americans are over the age of 50, with 16 percent over 65).

• More rural Americans are at the lower rungs of the income ladder. Some 33 percent of rural respondents live in households with incomes below $30,000 annually compared with 24 percent of non-rural respondents. Lower income Americans use the Internet less often because they simply can't afford it.

• Rural Americans are, on average, less educated than urban and suburban Americans; 29 percent of non-rural Americans have college (or higher) degrees compared to 18 percent of rural Americans. Higher education is associated with greater Internet use.

The report also attributes broadband's digital divide to the availability of service in some areas.

A February 2004 survey by Pew reported that among all dial up users surveyed 27 percent said broadband was not available in their area. For rural dial-up users, 38 percent said it wasn't available.

Even when the Internet is available in rural areas older homes typically aren't adequately wired for truly fast broadband access.

Telephone wire connections, typically DSL (digital subscriber line), suffer dwindling speeds the further the connection is from the point of transmission.

Even when cable and satellite connections are available, sufficient wiring to create a home computer network or intranet isn't always available.

For those in the computer age who need to be connected, buying a rural home could come with the added expense of making the home broadband-ready -- if that's even possible.

Published: March 7, 2006

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Broderick Perkins parlayed a career in old-school journalism into a contemporary digital news service that really hits home. The award-winning consumer journalist, originally from Wilmington, DE, is founder, publisher and executive editor of the bootstrap DeadlineNews Group, a Silicon Valley-based editorial content and consulting service specializing in residential real estate, consumer news and related editorial consulting services. The DeadlineNews Group includes the website, DeadlineNews.com, offering real estate editorial content and consulting services, and its back shop, the Deadline Newsroom, an open house on news that really hits home. Perkins obtained his formal journalism education from University of Delaware and a journalism boot camp, the Institute of Journalism Education at the University of California-Berkeley. He went on to 20 years of service as a daily newspaper journalist at the Wilmington, DE News Journal and San Jose, CA Mercury News. Perkins covered housing on the San Jose Mercury News reporting team which earned a General News Reporting Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. He has also produced real estate, consumer and small business content for the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, RealtyTimes.com, Nolo.com, Better Homes and Gardens, the National Association of Realtors, Homestore/Move and Intuit/Quicken among more than three dozen publications. In addition to managing the DeadlineNews Group, Perkins most recently served as chief editorial consultant for Nolo's Essential Guide To Buying Your First Home, Nolo, and writes real estate television scripts for RealtyTimes.com.