NTIA is pleased to release Falling Through the Net: Defining the Digital Divide. This is our third report examining which American households have access to telephones, computers, and the Internet, and which do not. The “digital divide”— the divide between those with access to new technologies and those without — is now one of America’s leading economic and civil rights issues. This report will help clarify which Americans are falling further behind, so that we can take concrete steps to redress this gap.

Overall,we have found that the number of Americans connected to the nation’s information infrastructure is soaring. Nevertheless, this year’s report finds that a digital divide still exists, and, in many cases, is actually widening over time. Minorities, low-income persons, the less educated, and children of single parent households, particularly when they reside in rural areas or central cities, are among the groups that lack access to information resources.