U.S. online activities: NTIA

180 observations: five activity questions, ten separate demographic breakdowns for November 2023, and national snapshots for November 2019, 2021 and 2023. The denominator is civilian noninstitutionalized internet users aged 15+, within each selected group. Activities concern at least occasional participation in the prior six months.

Source: NTIA Internet Use Survey — Analyze Table. 2023 table update: 2024-06-06. Retrieved and checked: 2026-10-08. The source CSV was unchanged from the retained October 1 file.

Metric registry: exact questions and populations

Social-network use

What about using social networks, such as Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram? (If needed) [Do you/Does NAME] use social networks?

Variable / universe
socialNetworkUser / adultInternetUser
Population
U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized internet users aged 15 and older, within the selected group
Entity / unit
People / percent of in-scope internet users

Texting or instant messaging

What about texting or instant messaging? (If needed) [Do you/Does NAME] text or use instant messaging?

Variable / universe
textIMUser / adultInternetUser
Population
U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized internet users aged 15 and older, within the selected group
Entity / unit
People / percent of in-scope internet users

Watching videos online

What about streaming or downloading videos? [Do you/Does NAME] watch videos over the Internet? Examples include YouTube and Netflix.

Variable / universe
videoUser / adultInternetUser
Population
U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized internet users aged 15 and older, within the selected group
Entity / unit
People / percent of in-scope internet users

Internet video or voice calls

In the past six months, [have you/has NAME] participated in video or voice calls or conferencing over the Internet, such as with FaceTime or Zoom? (If needed) [Do you/Does NAME] participate in video or voice calls or conferencing?

Variable / universe
callConfUser / adultInternetUser
Population
U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized internet users aged 15 and older, within the selected group
Entity / unit
People / percent of in-scope internet users

Online music, radio and podcasts

What about streaming or downloading music, radio programs, or podcasts? (If needed) [Do you/Does NAME] listen to music, radio programs, or podcasts using the Internet?

Variable / universe
audioUser / adultInternetUser
Population
U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized internet users aged 15 and older, within the selected group
Entity / unit
People / percent of in-scope internet users
Historical availability is broader than reviewed comparability
Actual source waves; reviewed history is limited to three national snapshots
VariableAvailable source wavesPresented history
socialNetworkUserJul 2015; Nov 2017; Nov 2019; Nov 2021; Nov 2023Nov 2019; Nov 2021; Nov 2023
textIMUserJul 2013; Jul 2015; Nov 2017; Nov 2019; Nov 2021; Nov 2023Nov 2019; Nov 2021; Nov 2023
videoUserJul 2013; Jul 2015; Nov 2017; Nov 2019; Nov 2021; Nov 2023Nov 2019; Nov 2021; Nov 2023
callConfUserJul 2015; Nov 2017; Nov 2019; Nov 2021; Nov 2023Nov 2019; Nov 2021; Nov 2023
audioUserJul 2015; Nov 2017; Nov 2019; Nov 2021; Nov 2023Nov 2019; Nov 2021; Nov 2023

Earlier rows are not treated as a harmonized trend. Wording and question context changed, and Census population controls changed in 2022. No cross-wave change calculation is enabled. See the methods and question-change notes.

NTIA uncertainty, derivations and reuse

Original source proportions and standard errors are multiplied by 100. A standard error becomes percentage points; it is not a confidence interval. The selected cells do not supply sample sizes or confidence intervals. Missing values remain missing. We process aggregate records only.

Source: NTIA Internet Use Survey, U.S. Census Bureau Current Population Survey. Selection and presentation by Social Usage; no agency endorsement implied. Reuse covers selected federal statistical facts and our original attributed presentation under the federal-work basis, checked 2026-10-08. It does not include agency logos, third-party artwork or respondent records. The CSV preserves exact source columns, row references, questions, dates, source SEs and credit.

Country internet adoption: World Bank / ITU

137 non-missing annual observations for the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Australia. All four have a latest non-null observation in 2024; 2025 cells are missing. Australia also has missing 2002–2004 cells. Missing years are retained explicitly.

IT.NET.USER.ZS, source 2 (World Development Indicators), counts individuals using the internet as a share of the source’s in-scope population. Its target definition is use in the past three months, but historical country footnotes document different ages and windows. Exact latest-year questions, fieldwork and uncertainty are not supplied in this response.

Source: World Bank WDI, original provider ITU. API source revision 2026-10-08; checked 2026-10-08. The separate bulk CSV has a July 13, 2026 header. Twenty-eight sampled cells, including missing values, match the current API.

Country coverage and comparison restrictions
Actual observations in this release
CountryFirst / latestNon-missingMissing years
United States1990 / 2024352025
Canada1990 / 2024352025
United Kingdom1990 / 2024352025
Australia1990 / 2024322002, 2003, 2004, 2025

Source and scope notes vary by year. Country rankings, growth and derived population counts are disabled. These internet-adoption percentages cannot be combined with NTIA’s internet-user activity shares.

World Bank / ITU reuse terms

World Bank: World Development Indicators, IT.NET.USER.ZS. Original data provider: International Telecommunication Union (ITU), World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Database. CC BY 4.0, with the World Bank data terms. Social Usage selected countries, organized the records and created original charts; underlying percentage values are unchanged. Display values may be rounded. Rights checked 2026-10-08.

The download preserves country/year footnotes, unknowns, source revisions, original-value precision, licence and source credit. No institutional logos or source artwork are included.

Source-specific reuse

This collection has separate terms for its two distributions: selected NTIA federal statistical aggregates carry NTIA / Census credit; selected World Bank / ITU observations require CC BY 4.0 attribution and the linked dataset terms. The source sections above describe each licence and required credit. No blanket licence is granted for other publishers, logos or respondent data.

A stable release, not a live counter

Imports are batched into a private cache, validated against retained original evidence and reviewed before a new version is promoted. Source revisions and missing cells are checked before replacing the current snapshot. Failed fetches, invalid facets or failed reviews preserve the last good release.

Downloads are fixed to digital-behavior-2026-10-08-v1. Future revisions receive new version URLs; this version is never silently rewritten. Data Commons is used for discovery and corroboration with explicit facets. Its NTIA household mapping is quarantined; it does not supply our published activity percentages.

Read the source audit and maintenance policy →
Cite this finding

Social Usage. Digital behavior and internet adoption: reviewed aggregate collection. Snapshot digital-behavior-2026-10-08-v1, reviewed 2026-10-08. NTIA / U.S. Census Bureau and World Bank / ITU; separate populations and periods. https://socialusage.com/data/digital-behavior/