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Built Environment – Households with Cellular Internet Only

This indicator reports the percentage of households who report having access to the internet through a mobile or cellular data plan with no other type of internet subscription.

Source

Source Description

The American Community Survey (ACS) is a nationwide survey designed to provide communities with reliable and timely social, economic, housing, and demographic data every year. The ACS has an annual sample size of about 3.5 million addresses, with survey information collected nearly every day of the year. Data are pooled across a calendar year to produce estimates for that year. As a result, ACS estimates reflect data that have been collected over a period of time rather than for a single point in time as in the decennial census, which is conducted every 10 years and provides population counts as of April 1. The Census Bureau combines 5 consecutive years of ACS data to produce estimates for geographic areas with fewer than 65,000 residents. These 5-year estimates represent data collected over a period of 60 months. Because the ACS is based on a sample, rather than all housing units and people, ACS estimates have a degree of uncertainty associated with them, called sampling error. In general, the larger the sample, the smaller the level of sampling error. Data users should be careful in drawing conclusions about small differences between two ACS estimates because they may not be statistically different.

Citation: U.S. Census Bureau: UNDERSTANDING AND USING AMERICAN COMMUNITY SURVEY DATA: WHAT ALL DATA USERS NEED TO KNOW (2018).

For more information about this source, including data collection methodology and definitions, refer to the American Community Survey data user’s website.

Methodology

Counts of households are acquired from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. Data represent estimates for the 5-year period 2019-2023. Mapped data are summarized to 2023 census tract boundaries. The data on high speed broadband access are obtained from Housing Question 10 in the 2023 American Community Survey (ACS). The question is asked at occupied housing units. These data show the different types of internet services used by household members, including cellular data plan for a smartphone, high speed broadband such as cable, fiber optic, or DSL service, satellite, dial-up, and other service. People who select “high speed broadband such as cable, fiber optic, or DSL service” are all counted into “Households with Cable, Fiber, or DSL”, no matter whether this is their only choice or they also select other services. For more information on the data reported in the American Community Survey, please see the complete American Community Survey 2023 Subject Definitions.

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