Census says 40 percent of Utahns still not connected to Digital Age

The U.S. Census Bureau has released a report saying that nearly 40 percent of Utahns are still not fully connected to the Internet via high-speed broadband service (Image courtesy of YouTube).

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In today’s Digital Age, we’re all connected – cradle to grave – with social media via the internet.

Unless, of course, we’re not.

In response to the Digital Equity Act of 2021, the U.S. Census Bureau has released a report that shows broadband availability and use alongside demographics in every state.

The Census report’s interactive map shows that nearly 40 percent of Utah’s population is not enjoying the benefits of the Digital Age because they live in places where fixed broadband service is unavailable; live in households that lack a computer or broadband; or are not connected to the Internet via a personal desktop computer, laptop or tablet device.

The Census Bureau is working with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to bridge that digital divide, according to Bethany DeSalvo of the bureau’s Social, Economic and Housing Statistics Division (SEHSD).

“The Digital Equity Act of 2021 requires NTIA to establish grant programs to promote digital equity, support digital inclusion activities and build capacity for state-led efforts to increase adoption of broadband by people living in their communities,” she explains. “Understanding who the commonly underserved populations are and where they live can help to fill the void in digital services.”

Expansion of broadband service is already underway in Utah.

On Mar. 10, Gov. Spencer Cox held a press conference in Mantua to announce the award of $5.86 million of the state’s $10 million Broadband Access Grant to link rural households in Box Elder County via high-speed broadband fiber optic cable.

The number of households in Box Elder County impacted by the state grant will be about 2,400, according to Ryan Starks, the director of the Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity.

The communities gaining faster Internet access will include Bear River City, Elwood, Howell, Mantua, Penrose, South Willard, Thatcher and Willard.

Cox said a portion of the funding for the state’s Broadband Access Grant was obtained from President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) of 2021. The remainder of the funding for the broadband project will be provided by Box Elder County.

DeSalvo said that the NTIA will allocate additional grant awards to the 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico based on their populations, demographics and availability of broadband.

The Census report says that nearly $1.2 million Utahns are still not connected to high-speed Internet service for various reasons.

Of the more than 1 million households in Utah, about 275,000 are not connected to the Internet via a personal desktop computer, laptop or tablet device, primarily for economic reasons.

That includes about 160,000 households with incomes at or below 150 percent of the poverty level.

About 150,000 households are in areas with no high-speed connection to the Internet at all, primarily in rural Utah.

In the state’s immigrant community, about 135,000 households are constrained from Internet use by language barriers or low literacy.

Access to the Census Bureau’s interactive Digital Equity Act Population Viewer can be found at https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2022/digital-equity-act-population-viewer.html

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1 Comment

  • Ron DeAngelo May 25, 2022 at 12:07 pm Reply

    No way that’s true.

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