2.2 billion people, more than one in four humans, still had no internet access in 2025, and 96% of them lived in low- and middle-income countries (International Telecommunication Union, Facts and Figures 2025). Where people are connected, the gap has shifted to quality and cost: 94% of people in high-income countries use the internet versus just 23% in low-income countries (ITU, Facts and Figures 2025). In the United States, 54% of adults in households earning under 30,000 dollars have home broadband, compared with 94% of those earning 100,000 dollars or more (Pew Research Center, 2025). And 3.1 billion people live within reach of a mobile network yet still do not use it, held back by cost, skills, and devices rather than coverage (GSMA, State of Mobile Internet Connectivity 2025). This analysis consolidates data from the ITU, the FCC, Pew Research Center, the GSMA, and 13 other primary sources to map where the digital divide stands in 2026.
TL;DR
- 2.2 billion people remained offline worldwide in 2025, roughly a quarter of humanity (ITU, Facts and Figures 2025).
- Internet use reached 94% in high-income countries but only 23% in low-income countries (ITU, Facts and Figures 2025).
- 3.1 billion people live inside mobile-broadband coverage but do not use it, the “usage gap” (GSMA, State of Mobile Internet Connectivity 2025).
- 78% of U.S. adults have home broadband; the figure falls to 54% for households under 30,000 dollars (Pew Research Center, 2025).
- About 24 million Americans lack fixed broadband at 100/20 Mbps, including ~28% of rural residents (FCC, 2024 Broadband Deployment Report).
- 23 million households lost the Affordable Connectivity Program discount when it ended June 1, 2024 (FCC; Congressional Research Service).
- Home broadband ranges from 86% for Asian adults to 68% for Hispanic adults in the U.S. (Pew Research Center, 2025).
- Nearly 17 million U.S. schoolchildren lack home internet access, the “homework gap” (FCC, via NEA).
- 92% of U.S. jobs require digital skills, yet about one-third of workers have limited or no digital skills (National Skills Coalition, 2023).
- Global AI adoption reached 24.7% of working-age people in the Global North versus 14.1% in the Global South (Microsoft, AI Diffusion Report 2025 H2).
- 77% of men use the internet globally versus 71% of women, unchanged in parity since 2019 (ITU, Facts and Figures 2025).
1. The Global Connectivity Gap
The headline number keeps improving while the underlying inequality hardens. Roughly three-quarters of the world is now online, but the ITU’s Facts and Figures 2025 frames the remaining gap as one of quality and affordability rather than mere presence of a signal. A person in a high-income country is more than four times as likely to use the internet as someone in a low-income country (94% versus 23%). The GSMA sharpens the point: coverage is nearly universal, so the binding constraint is now demand-side, cost, devices, and skills, not towers.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| People using the internet worldwide (2025) | 6.0 billion (~75%) | ITU, Facts and Figures 2025 |
| People still offline worldwide | 2.2 billion | ITU, Facts and Figures 2025 |
| Internet use, high-income vs low-income countries | 94% vs 23% | ITU, Facts and Figures 2025 |
| Urban vs rural internet use (global) | 85% vs 58% | ITU, Facts and Figures 2025 |
| 5G population coverage, high- vs low-income countries | 84% vs 4% | ITU, Facts and Figures 2025 |
| Share of offline population in low/middle-income countries | 96% | ITU, Facts and Figures 2025 |
| Mobile “usage gap”: covered but not using mobile internet | 3.1 billion (38%) | GSMA, State of Mobile Internet Connectivity 2025 |
| Mobile “coverage gap”: no mobile broadband available | ~300 million (4%) | GSMA, State of Mobile Internet Connectivity 2025 |
Context: for global usage totals and growth trends rather than equity gaps, see our companion global internet usage statistics; the quality side of the divide is covered in our internet speed statistics.
2. Income and Affordability in the United States
Affordability is where U.S. policy moved backward. The Pew Research Center’s 2025 survey of 5,022 adults shows a 40-point broadband gap between the lowest- and highest-income households that has proven stubborn. The shock came in mid-2024, when the Affordable Connectivity Program lapsed. A National Lifeline Association survey found nearly 40% of former ACP participants cut back on food to keep paying for internet after the subsidy vanished. That is the divide expressed as a household trade-off, not an abstraction, and with no federal replacement, the pressure fell to states.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| U.S. adults with home broadband, under 30k vs 100k+ | 54% vs 94% | Pew Research Center, 2025 |
| U.S. adults with home broadband (overall) | 78% | Pew Research Center, 2025 |
| Smartphone-dependent (no home broadband), under 30k vs 100k+ | 34% vs 4% | Pew Research Center, 2025 |
| Households enrolled in ACP when it ended (June 1, 2024) | 23 million | FCC, Affordable Connectivity Program |
| Households that dropped internet after ACP ended | ~5 million | Brattle Group (2025), via Broadband Breakfast |
| Former ACP users who cut back on food for internet | ~40% | National Lifeline Association (Jan 2025) |
| Former ACP users who discontinued telehealth | 36% | National Lifeline Association (Jan 2025) |
| States funding their own broadband programs in 2025 | 26 states / 1.3 billion dollars | Pew Charitable Trusts, 2025 |
Outlier: because 36% of former ACP households said they dropped telehealth, affordability gaps ripple into care access, a pattern detailed in our telehealth statistics.
3. Rural, Tribal, and Geographic Access
Averages hide the worst-served places. The FCC’s 2024 Broadband Deployment Report raised the fixed-broadband benchmark to 100/20 Mbps, a fourfold increase over the old 25/3 standard, which instantly reclassified millions of rural and Tribal locations as unserved. More than 23% of people on Tribal lands lack fixed broadband at 100/20 Mbps, roughly triple the national shortfall. Mobile does not rescue these areas either: about 36% of rural Americans fall outside 5G service at the FCC’s minimum benchmark speed.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Americans lacking fixed broadband at 100/20 Mbps | ~24 million | FCC, 2024 Broadband Deployment Report |
| Rural Americans lacking fixed broadband at 100/20 Mbps | ~28% | FCC, 2024 Broadband Deployment Report |
| Tribal-land residents lacking fixed broadband at 100/20 Mbps | >23% | FCC, 2024 Broadband Deployment Report |
| Rural Americans lacking mobile 5G-NR at 35/3 Mbps | ~36% | FCC, 2024 Broadband Deployment Report |
| Tribal-land residents lacking mobile 5G-NR at 35/3 Mbps | >20% | FCC, 2024 Broadband Deployment Report |
| U.S. home broadband, rural vs suburban | 71% vs 84% | Pew Research Center, 2025 |
| U.S. households that do not use the internet at home | 24 million | NTIA, Internet Use Survey (2023) |
Context: satellite is reshaping the hardest-to-reach rural math, quantified in our Starlink satellite internet statistics.
4. Race, Ethnicity, and the Adoption Gap
The racial gap in home broadband is narrower than the income gap but remarkably persistent, and it moved the wrong way for one group. Pew Research Center recorded Hispanic home-broadband adoption falling from 75% in 2023 to 68% in 2025, while smartphone dependence rose over the same window. Hispanic and Black adults are more than twice as likely as Asian adults to be smartphone-dependent, meaning they rely on a phone with no home broadband to get online. Smartphone-only access caps what people can do, from filling out forms to uploading documents, so the gap is about capability, not just connection.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| U.S. home broadband by race/ethnicity | 86% Asian, 81% White, 71% Black, 68% Hispanic | Pew Research Center, 2025 |
| Smartphone-dependent by race/ethnicity | 28% Hispanic, 19% Black, 13% White, 11% Asian | Pew Research Center, 2025 |
| Hispanic home broadband, 2023 to 2025 | 75% to 68% | Pew Research Center, 2025 |
| Digital skill divide falls hardest on | workers of color, low-income, rural residents | National Skills Coalition, 2023 |
| U.S. residents ages 3+ using the internet (2023) | 83% | NTIA, Internet Use Survey (2023) |
| New U.S. internet users, 2021 to 2023 | +13 million | NTIA, Internet Use Survey (2023) |
Outlier: NTIA reported outsized 2021-to-2023 connectivity gains among seniors, people with disabilities, and low-income households, so overall adoption rose even as some sub-gaps widened.
5. The Homework Gap and Education
Nowhere is the divide more consequential than in K-12 education, where a missing connection compounds nightly. The FCC and the NEA document how students without home internet fall behind on the same assignments as their connected peers. Students without home internet spend an extra 30 minutes per night on homework, and 64% sometimes leave assignments unfinished for lack of a connection or device. The policy backdrop is unsettled: the FCC rescinded its E-Rate off-premises Wi-Fi hotspot rules on September 30, 2025, removing one tool schools had used to lend connectivity.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| U.S. schoolchildren without home internet access | ~17 million | FCC, via NEA |
| U.S. students affected by the homework gap | ~18% | NEA / K-12 Dive |
| Extra homework time per night without home internet | +30 minutes | NEA |
| Students leaving homework unfinished for lack of access | 64% | NEA |
| K-12 students lacking a connection or adequate device (pandemic peak) | ~30% (15-16 million) | Common Sense / BCG / EducationSuperHighway, 2020 |
| E-Rate off-premises Wi-Fi hotspot rules rescinded | Sept 30, 2025 | FCC |
Note: the 30% device-and-connectivity figure is the most-cited education baseline but reflects 2020 school-closure conditions; treat it as a peak, not a current rate. For learning outcomes and adoption, see our online learning statistics.
6. Digital Skills and the Emerging AI Divide
Access is necessary but not sufficient; skills decide what access is worth, and a new AI-shaped gap is opening on top of the old one. The National Skills Coalition found that 92% of jobs now require digital skills even as a third of workers lack them. Meanwhile Microsoft’s AI Diffusion Report shows generative-AI adoption spreading unevenly across the same fault lines. The OECD measured a 53.6 percentage point age gap in generative-AI use, the single widest demographic split in adoption, larger than the income or education gaps. A divide that took two decades to narrow for basic access is reappearing at AI speed.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| U.S. jobs requiring digital skills | 92% | National Skills Coalition, 2023 |
| U.S. workers with no or limited digital skills | ~1 in 3 (13% none, 18% limited) | National Skills Coalition, 2023 |
| Wage premium for jobs needing one digital skill | +23% | National Skills Coalition, 2023 |
| People worldwide using generative AI (2025) | ~1 in 6 | Microsoft, AI Diffusion Report 2025 H2 |
| Generative-AI adoption, Global North vs Global South (working-age) | 24.7% vs 14.1% | Microsoft, AI Diffusion Report 2025 H2 |
| Generative-AI use, age gap (OECD countries) | 53.6 points | OECD, 2026 |
| Generative-AI use, income and education gaps (OECD) | ~21 points each | OECD, 2026 |
| U.S. generative-AI adoption rate (rank) | 28.3% (24th) | Microsoft, AI Diffusion Report 2025 H2 |
Note: the National Skills Coalition figures are the most recent comprehensive U.S. estimate available (2023); the AI adoption figures are from January 2026 disclosures.
7. Age, Disability, and Device Access
The oldest divide, generational, is closing fast at the top but still leaves the very old and people with disabilities behind on devices. AARP’s 2026 tech-trends survey of 3,838 adults shows smartphone ownership among the 50-plus jumping from 55% in 2016 to 90% in 2025. Yet 60% of older adults say today’s technology is not designed with them in mind, a usability gap that access numbers cannot capture. For people with disabilities, device ownership still trails: the most recent Pew figures show a 19-point computer-ownership gap.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| U.S. adults 65+ with home broadband / smartphone | 70% / 78% | Pew Research Center, 2025 |
| Adults with a disability owning a desktop/laptop vs without | 62% vs 81% | Pew Research Center, 2021 |
| Adults with a disability owning a smartphone vs without | 72% vs 88% | Pew Research Center, 2021 |
| Smartphone ownership among adults 50+ (2016 to 2025) | 55% to 90% | AARP, 2026 Tech Trends |
| Adults 50+ owning at least one major tech device | 99% | AARP, 2026 Tech Trends |
| Older adults who say tech is not designed for them | 60% | AARP, 2026 Tech Trends |
| AI use among adults 50+ (2024 to 2025) | 18% to 30% | AARP, 2026 Tech Trends |
Note: the disability device-ownership figures are the most recent available (Pew Research Center, 2021); Pew found no statistically significant home-broadband gap by disability status in that survey (72% vs 78%).
Summary: Digital Divide by the Numbers
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| People offline worldwide (2025) | 2.2 billion | ITU, Facts and Figures 2025 |
| Internet use, high- vs low-income countries | 94% vs 23% | ITU, Facts and Figures 2025 |
| Global urban vs rural internet use | 85% vs 58% | ITU, Facts and Figures 2025 |
| Global internet use, men vs women | 77% vs 71% | ITU, Facts and Figures 2025 |
| Mobile “usage gap” (covered, not using) | 3.1 billion | GSMA, State of Mobile Internet Connectivity 2025 |
| 5G coverage, high- vs low-income countries | 84% vs 4% | ITU, Facts and Figures 2025 |
| U.S. home broadband, under 30k vs 100k+ | 54% vs 94% | Pew Research Center, 2025 |
| U.S. smartphone-dependent internet users (overall) | 16% | Pew Research Center, 2025 |
| U.S. home broadband by race (Asian to Hispanic) | 86% to 68% | Pew Research Center, 2025 |
| Americans lacking fixed broadband at 100/20 Mbps | ~24 million | FCC, 2024 Broadband Deployment Report |
| Tribal-land residents lacking 100/20 Mbps broadband | >23% | FCC, 2024 Broadband Deployment Report |
| ACP households cut off when program ended | 23 million | FCC; Congressional Research Service |
| Former ACP users cutting back on food for internet | ~40% | National Lifeline Association, 2025 |
| U.S. schoolchildren without home internet | ~17 million | FCC, via NEA |
| U.S. jobs requiring digital skills | 92% | National Skills Coalition, 2023 |
| U.S. workers with no or limited digital skills | ~1 in 3 | National Skills Coalition, 2023 |
| Generative-AI adoption, Global North vs South | 24.7% vs 14.1% | Microsoft, AI Diffusion Report 2025 H2 |
| Generative-AI use, OECD age gap | 53.6 points | OECD, 2026 |
| Smartphone ownership among adults 50+ (2025) | 90% | AARP, 2026 Tech Trends |
| Older adults who say tech is not built for them | 60% | AARP, 2026 Tech Trends |
Methodology and Sources
Data was gathered by aggregating figures directly from primary reports, government datasets, and named survey releases published in 2024-2026, cross-referencing overlapping metrics across two or more sources and flagging any figure older than 2024.
- International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Facts and Figures 2025 (Nov 2025)
- ITU media release, Facts and Figures 2025 (Nov 17, 2025)
- GSMA, State of Mobile Internet Connectivity 2025 (2025)
- Pew Research Center, Internet use, smartphone ownership and digital divides in the U.S. (Jan 2026; survey Feb-June 2025)
- Pew Research Center, Americans with disabilities less likely to own some digital devices (2021)
- FCC, Broadband Deployment Reports (2024 Section 706 Report) (Mar 2024)
- FCC, Affordable Connectivity Program
- FCC, Homework Gap and Connectivity Divide
- Congressional Research Service, The End of the Affordable Connectivity Program
- NTIA, New Data Show 13 Million More Internet Users in the U.S. (Internet Use Survey 2023)
- National Skills Coalition and Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, Closing the Digital Skill Divide (2023)
- Microsoft, AI Diffusion Report 2025 H2 (Global AI Adoption in 2025) (Jan 2026)
- OECD, AI use by individuals surges across the OECD (Jan 2026)
- AARP, 2026 Tech Trends and Adults 50-Plus (survey Sept-Oct 2025)
- NEA, The Digital Divide and Homework Gap in Your State
- Pew Charitable Trusts, To Improve Broadband Deployment, Enhanced Data Collection Is Key (Jul 2025)
- Additional figures: Brattle Group (2025) and National Lifeline Association (Jan 2025) survey, as reported by Broadband Breakfast and Human-I-T; Common Sense / BCG / EducationSuperHighway (2020).
Data watch: the ITU publishes Facts and Figures annually each November, so a 2026 edition is expected in late 2026; the FCC’s next Section 706 Broadband Deployment Report is due in its usual annual cycle; the NTIA fielded its next Internet Use Survey in November 2025, with results expected in 2026; Pew Research Center refreshes its internet and broadband tracking annually; AARP releases its tech-trends survey each winter; and GSMA and Microsoft update their connectivity and AI-diffusion reports on regular cycles.
Last updated: July 17, 2026. We review and update this page quarterly as new data is published.