Broadband internet at home, explained

What it measures

The broadband share is the percentage of households with a broadband internet subscription at home. The Census definition of "broadband" includes cable, fiber, DSL, fixed wireless, satellite, and other high-speed technologies, but excludes dial-up and mobile-only access. A household must have a paid subscription (free public Wi-Fi or library access doesn't count) and the subscription must be at home (not just a mobile data plan).

The Census Bureau began publishing detailed internet-access data in 2013 as part of the ACS computer and internet subjects.

Why it matters

Broadband access is a foundational metric of digital-divide research and federal broadband-deployment policy. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act allocated tens of billions of dollars for broadband expansion, with funding formulas weighted toward areas with low subscription rates. State and local broadband offices use the metric to identify priority deployment areas. The metric also predicts a wide range of downstream outcomes, student achievement, telework eligibility, telehealth utilization, small-business formation, that depend on reliable internet access.

How the Census measures it

ACS Table B28002, Presence and Types of Internet Subscriptions in Household. CensusEasy uses the count of households with a broadband subscription divided by total occupied housing units.

How to read the numbers

The US broadband subscription rate is about 85%. State rates range from about 75% (Mississippi, New Mexico, West Virginia) to over 90% (Washington, Utah, Colorado). The lowest figures are in rural Appalachian counties, parts of the rural South, and tribal lands where deployment infrastructure has been historically underdeveloped. A metro broadband share below 80% typically indicates either substantial low-income population without affordable access (the affordability barrier) or substantial rural area without service availability (the infrastructure barrier).

Caveats and limitations

The metric captures subscription, not service speed or quality, households with very slow or unreliable connections that meet the Census broadband threshold are counted the same as households with gigabit fiber. Mobile-only households (no home subscription, internet via smartphone data plan) are counted as not having broadband even though they have functional internet access. The FCC publishes more detailed broadband availability and speed data through its mapping program.