Pew: 87 percent of adults use the internet

In a quarter of a century the world wide web has gone from an abstract idea to near saturation in the U.S.

The web turns 25 years old on March 12, the date on which Sir Tim Berners-Lee published a paper proposing an information management system, which entered the mainstream in the 1990s when web browsers became more common.

To celebrate the web’s 25th anniversary, the Pew Research Internet Project has released a report looking at just how much the web has impacted our lives in those 25 years.

In 2014, 87 percent of American adults use the internet, up from 14 percent in 1995, the first year internet adoption was tracked by Pew.

That number is even higher when looking at specific demographic groups. For example, 99 percent of those living in households earning at least $75,000 annually use the internet, as do 97 percent of those ages 18-29 or with a college degree.

Not only are more people than ever using the internet, they’re spending more time than ever with it as well.

This year 71 percent of Americans say they use the internet on a typical day, up from 29 percent in 2000. And part of that growth is due to the rise of mobile. Sixty-eight percent say they go online from a cell phone, tablet or other device at least occasionally.

For more findings from the extensive Pew report, click here.

Tags: internet, online, pew, studies, web, World Wide Web