For 7% of Americans, smartphone is only link to Internet

SAN FRANCISCO — For 7% of Americans, a smartphone is their only readily available option for accessing the Internet, a survey by the Pew Research Center finds.

"Their phone is really their primary access point for all of the things we take for granted in the online space," said Aaron Smith, a Pew researcher who helped write the report.

Online access has become increasingly necessary merely to function in the world. About 89% of adult Americans use the Internet, previous Pew research has found.

Many Americans use a mix of ways to get online, which can include a computer, tablet or phone at home, at work or through a friend or at a library.

But 7% are what Pew terms "smartphone reliant" — their phone is their only way to get online.

These smartphone-dependent users are younger, poorer, less-educated and more likely to be a member of a minority than the rest of the nation.

The survey found that 15% of Americans ages 18 to 29 are dependent on their phones for online access.

Of people with annual household incomes of less than $30,000 per year, 13% were smartphone-dependent.

In contrast, just 1% of Americans who live in households that earn more than $75,000 were only able to access the Internet via a smartphone.

At the same time, lower-income users were more likely to use their phones when looking for work.

People from households earning less than $30,000 annually were nearly twice as likely to use a smartphone to look for information about a job and more than four times as likely to use their phone to actually submit a job application than those earning over $75,000, the survey found.

They are also less white: 12% of blacks and 13% of Latinos were smartphone-dependent, compared with 4% of whites.

Smartphone ownership is often most tenuous for those who rely on their devices the most, the survey found.

Of the 7% smartphone-dependent users, nearly a quarter had had to cancel or suspend their service because they couldn't afford it and 15% "frequently" reached the maximum data use on their plans.

"Even though this is their lifeline to services that all of us take for granted, it isn't always there when they need it," Smith said.

The poll was conducted from October through December by Pew in association with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.