• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, April 9, 2007

A report released in March, 2007, entitled Latinos Online by PEW Research, finds that 56% of Latinos in the U.S. (comprising 14% of the U.S. adult population) use the internet. By comparison, 71% of non-Hispanic whites and 60% of non- Hispanic blacks use the internet. Lower levels of education and limited English ability largely explain the gap in internet use between Hispanics and non-Hispanics, concludes the report.

One in three Latinos who speak only Spanish go online.

• 78% of Latinos who are English-dominant and 76% of bilingual Latinos use the internet, compared with 32% of Spanish-dominant Hispanic adults.
• 76% of U.S.-born Latinos go online, compared with 43% of those born outside the U.S.
• 80% of second-generation Latinos go online, as do 71% of third-generation Latinos.
• 89% of Latinos who have a college degree, 70% of Latinos who completed high school, and 31% of Latinos who did not complete high school go online.
• Mexicans are the largest national origin group in the U.S. Latino population but only 52% of Latinos of Mexican descent use the internet. Even when age, income, language, generation, or nativity is held constant, being Mexican is associated with a decreased likelihood of going online.

Internet use is much higher among Latinos who speak and read English fluently than among those who have limited English abilities or who only speak Spanish. Language is not an issue in the white and black populations as the shares of adults with limited English abilities is quite small.

Communications, however, is not limited to the computer screen, says the report. 59% of Latino adults have a cell phone and 49% of Latino cell phone users send and receive text messages on their phone. Expressed differently, 56% of Latino adults go online, 18% of Latino adults have a cell phone but do not go online, and 26% of Latino adults have neither a cell phone nor an internet connection.

Please visit here to access the report as a PDF file, and gain more information about PEW.