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are catching up
Coming on twice as fast, led by women and young
By Marty Beard
U.S. Hispanics may have been slow to get on the web, but they are making up for lost time. They are coming on twice as fast as whites, and women and young adults are leading the trend.
Between March 2000 and February 2001, the rolls of internet-using Hispanics increased by 25 percent, making for a current user base of 11 million Hispanic adults, according to a recent study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project.
In comparison, the number of whites that came online increased by just 13 percent.
"Our polls show that Hispanics were somewhat slower than whites in first getting online, but that they are catching up," says the director of the Pew project, Lee Rainie. "Hispanics are quite mainstream in their tastes and preferences."
The growth means that 50 percent of all U.S. adult Hispanics now have used the internet.
In comparison, 58 percent of white adults have used the internet, and 43 percent of African-American adults have gone online.
Overall, online Hispanics are younger and bring in less income than the online population at large. Yet the much-discussed digital divide between whites and Hispanics is narrowing, according to Pew.
In March 2000, just 40 percent of Hispanic adults had internet access, but since then 2 million more have gotten wired.
About 24 percent of adult Hispanic internet users went online for the first time within the past year, and 14 percent have come online for the first time within the past six months.
Those proportions are about the same as for online whites, and somewhat smaller than the proportions of African-American internet newbies.
Also, 52 percent of new Hispanic web users are women.
As in most populations, income, age and gender appear to affect internet use.
Female Hispanic web surfers are more likely to have gone online for health information than Hispanic males; 59 percent of Hispanics women have done that, compared to 42 percent of males.
But 58 percent of men in the demographic have gone online in quest of information for school or work, versus half of women.
Like black web surfers, wired Latinos enjoy taking advantage of the web’s lighter side. Seventy-two percent of Hispanics who have internet access have gone online and surfed the web just for entertainment, as opposed to 62 percent of white surfers.
Seventy-one percent of Hispanic web surfers have used the internet to troll for information on books, movies and other leisure activities. This compares to 62 percent of whites.
Forty-eight percent of wired Hispanics have listened to music over the internet, compared to 33 percent of whites, and 36 percent of wired Hispanics have downloaded music, as opposed to 21 percent of white web users.
Wired Hispanics under the age of 30 are more adventurous in terms of typical online activities such as hanging out in chat rooms, listening to or downloading music.
Thirty-two percent of online Hispanics have taken part in online chat, versus just one quarter of wired whites and 40 percent of wired blacks.
Older Hispanics, the Pew report says, are more likely to visit government web sites, make travel reservations or look up health information.
In terms of education, most online Hispanics lack college degrees. This, the study says, is mainly because the majority of Hispanic web users are too young to have completed their college degrees.
That, in turn, reflects the overall youthfulness of the population. Thirty percent of wired Hispanics are age 18 to 24, and 31 percent are age 25 to 35. In contrast, 17 percent of online whites are age 18 to 24, and 24 percent are age 25 to 34.
Eighty-six percent of new Hispanic web users don’t have a college degree. Forty-four percent have a high school diploma, and 15 percent don’t have a high school diploma.
Twenty-six percent do have at least a college degree, versus 38 percent of wired whites and 29 percent of black internet users.
On any given day, 61 percent of online Hispanics go online. Because that figure is 20 percent greater than it was in March 2000, it is testament to the increasing penetration of the medium into the demographic.
Forty-nine percent of all online Hispanics reside in households that bring in less than $40,000 a year. One-third live in households that early between $40,000 and $75,000 a year, and 18 percent have incomes of more than $75,000 a year.
Members of the Hispanic demographic also go online to manage and learn about their money, in similar proportions to whites. Twenty percent of online Hispanics have taken part in online banking and 12 percent have traded stocks over the internet.
Forty-one percent have participated in e-commerce, namely by buying something online. That’s not far behind whites, 49 percent of whom have shopped online.
Fifty-one percent have gone online for health and medical information; 41 percent have enlisted the web in a job search; and 28 percent have conducted online research about a place to live.
The initial poll of 26,094 adults took place from March 1 through December 22 of last year; 904 of the 1,842 Hispanic respondents questioned are internet users. The follow-up poll, which took place this February, canvassed 2,096 adults, of whom 132 were Hispanic and 1,198 were internet users.
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Internet users’ fears, |
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| Fears |
Hispanics (%) |
Whites (%) |
Blacks (%) |
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Businesses and strangers getting personal information about you and your family |
64 |
56 |
68 |
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Computer hackers getting your credit card number online |
76 |
66 |
72 |
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Having unqualified people give out medical advice online |
61 |
52 |
66 |
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Computer viruses |
57 |
53 |
58 |
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False or inaccurate new reports |
61 |
47 |
59 |
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People spreading false rumors to affect stock prices |
58 |
45 |
59 |
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People misrepresenting their identities |
38 |
38 |
43 |
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Someone might know what web sites you’ve visited |
35 |
30 |
31 |
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Emails being read by people other than the intended recipient |
37 |
26 |
23 |
| Source:
Pew Internet and American Life Project
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July 30, 2001 © 2001 Media Life
-Marty Beard is a staff writer for Media Life.
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