53% of Americans Say the Internet Has Been Essential During the COVID-19 Outbreak

A new Pew Research Center survey conducted in early April finds that roughly half of U.S. adults (53%) say the internet has been essential for them personally during the pandemic and another 34% describe it as “important, but not essential.”

As Americans turn to the internet for critical purposes, there are

When asked about the role of schools in providing technology to students, 37% of adults say K-12 schools have a responsibility to provide all students with laptop or tablet computers in order to help them complete their schoolwork at home during the COVID-19 outbreak. And 43% think schools have this responsibility, but only for students whose families cannot afford it. In total, 80% of Americans think schools have this obligation to at least some students, while about one-in-five (19%) say they do not have this responsibility to any students.

While majorities of both Democrats and Republicans – including independents, who lean towards these parties – believe that schools have a responsibility to provide technology to at least some students to help them complete their schoolwork, there are partisan differences when it comes to the idea of providing laptops or tablets to all students. Some 45% of Democrats believe schools should be obligated to provide computers to all students during the outbreak, compared with 28% of Republicans. Meanwhile, Republicans are more likely than Democrats to believe schools do not have a responsibility to provide computers to any students (29% vs. 11%).

Amid concerns that students’ learning 

Overall, roughly one-in-five parents with homebound schoolchildren say it is very or somewhat likely their children will not be able complete their schoolwork because they do not have access to a computer at home (21%) or have to use public Wi-Fi to finish their schoolwork because there is not a reliable internet connection at home (22%). And about three-in-ten parents (29%) report that it is at least somewhat likely their children will have to do their schoolwork on a cellphone.

These concerns are especially prevalent among parents with lower incomes.

Asked to state their views when they add up all the advantages and disadvantages of the internet for them personally, nine-in-ten Americans say the internet has mostly been a good thing for them. At the same time, 78% believe it has been a mostly good thing for society. As has been true

Americans were also asked how important the internet has been for them during the coronavirus pandemic. Fully 87% of adults say the internet has been at least important for them personally during the coronavirus outbreak, including 53% who describe it as essential. Relatively few Americans – 13% – think the internet has been not too or not at all important for them during the outbreak.

Majorities across all demographic groups consider the internet at least important during this time, but there are some distinctions on whether they have found it be essential. Roughly two-thirds of adults under the age of 50 say the internet has been essential for them during the outbreak, compared with 49% of adults ages 50 to 64 and 31% of adults age 65 and older.

There are also some differences by education level. Some 65% of college graduates say the internet has been essential during the outbreak, compared with 52% of adults with some college education and 42% of those with a high school education or less. Upper-income adults, Hispanics, and urban or suburban residents are also particularly likely to describe the internet as essential for them during the coronavirus outbreak.

Roughly half of Americans with lower incomes are worried about paying their broadband and cellphone bills over the coming months

With numerous everyday tasks being driven online, there is renewed attention on the impact of the digital divide. Before the pandemic, Center surveys showed that there is still a share of the population that

Other Pew Research Center reports show that many Americans face substantial new financial struggles because of this outbreak. About half say the coronavirus poses a

Overall, a majority of Americans in this early April survey say it is not the responsibility of the federal government to ensure that all Americans have a high-speed internet connection (62%) or cellphone service (65%) amid the pandemic, while about four-in-ten believe that the government should bear this responsibility.

While there is not clear majority support among either party for this, Democrats and independents who lean toward the Democratic Party are more likely than their Republican and Republican-leaning counterparts to believe that the government should have a role in providing these services. Roughly half of Democrats (52%) say the federal government has a responsibility to ensure that all Americans have a high-speed internet connection at home during the COVID-19 outbreak, while just 22% of Republicans hold his view. Democrats are also about twice as likely as Republicans to believe the federal government has responsibility to provide cellphone service for all Americans amid this crisis (45% vs. 21%).

There are also differences within the Republican Party by income. Among Republicans and Republican leaners, 36% of those with lower incomes say the federal government has a responsibility to ensure that all Americans have a high-speed internet connection at home during this pandemic, compared with 20% of those in the middle-income tier and just 13% of those who in the upper income tier. When asked about their views about ensuring cellphone services, 35% of lower-income Republicans and Republican leaners agree that the government bears this responsibility, while smaller shares of middle- and upper-income Republicans say this (19% and 13%, respectively).

By comparison, there are more modest differences found between upper- and lower-income Democrats.

Broadband users who express concern about affording their high-speed internet bill in the coming months are more likely than those who are less worried about their internet connectivity bills to back the idea that the federal government should ensure high-speed internet access during the coronavirus outbreak (52% vs. 31%). Similarly, smartphone users who say they worry about affording their cellphone bills for the next few months are more likely than those who are less worried about their phone bills to say that they think the federal government has a responsibility to ensure that all Americans have cellphone service during the coronavirus (47% vs. 29%).

Americans mostly believe that K-12 schools should provide computers to at least some students during the COVID-19 outbreak

In this more challenging education environment, the question becomes: Should school systems provide technology to K-12 students? When asked about schools’ responsibility to provide laptop or tablet computers to students in order to help them complete their schoolwork at home during the coronavirus outbreak, 37% of Americans say K-12 schools have this responsibility to all students, and 43% say they are only responsible for providing these resources to students whose families cannot afford them. By comparison, 19% believe schools do not have this responsibility to any students.

While majorities of both Democrats and Republicans say schools have the responsibility to provide computers to at least some students, there are partisan differences when it comes to whether this should be available to all students. Democrats and the independents who lean Democratic are more likely than Republicans and their leaners to say schools have this responsibility to all students (45% vs. 28%).

At the same time, 29% of Republicans (compared with 11% of Democrats) say schools do not have a responsibility to provide computers to any students during the COVID-19 outbreak.

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