Social Usage analysis of NTIA / U.S. Census Bureau
How social-network use varies by family income
Five income groups, one survey question. Read the difference alongside who is counted.
separate the reported social-network-use shares in the highest and lowest family-income bands: 79.5% for $100,000 or more and 70.5% for under $25,000.
United States · Internet users aged 15+ in each income group · November 2023 · Activity in the prior six months
Source: NTIA Internet Use Survey, administered by the U.S. Census Bureau. Social Usage subtracts the full-precision source percentages before rounding. The gap is descriptive; no significance test or causal conclusion is claimed.
Participation across five income groups
The reported share increases across the five published annual family-income bands. Each bar counts people who use the internet within that band; it does not count families, accounts or users of an individual platform.
Source: NTIA / U.S. Census Bureau, Analyze Table, Nov 2023 / socialNetworkUser / adultInternetUser; five income-group columns. Labels are rounded to one decimal. Source standard errors and full precision are in the table below.
Read the data and source standard errors
| Family-income group | Share (%) | Standard error (pp) |
|---|---|---|
| Under $25,000 | 70.5477 | 0.7634 |
| $25,000–49,999 | 73.5867 | 0.6235 |
| $50,000–74,999 | 76.6575 | 0.6037 |
| $75,000–99,999 | 78.0072 | 0.7091 |
| $100,000 or more | 79.4762 | 0.4183 |
Source: NTIA aggregate CSV, row 769 including the header in the retained file; codes Nov 2023 / socialNetworkUser / adultInternetUser. The source proportions and standard errors are multiplied by 100. Source standard errors are not 95% margins of error or standard errors of the gap.
For context, the separately published national estimate is 76.4% of U.S. internet users aged 15+, with source standard error 0.2645 percentage points. It is a weighted national estimate, not an unweighted average of these five percentages. Source and definition →
Read the denominator first
This comparison describes social-network activity among people who already use the internet. People who do not use the internet are outside the denominator. The table alone therefore cannot supply the social-network-use share of every person in an income group.
The source classifies people by annual family income. The bands are not an individual's salary or personal earnings, and the age-15+ population includes people who are not employed. The result is also not the percentage of income spent on social media.
The five published cells are separate group estimates from one survey. They do not adjust the comparison for age, education or other characteristics, and this table provides no income-by-age or income-by-state intersection. The observed pattern cannot show whether income itself explains social-network use.
Population, activity question and family-income groups: retained NTIA release definitions. Interpretation and the endpoint subtraction are Social Usage's analysis.
Follow the calculation back to the source
Exact inputs, rounding and source references
The endpoint calculation is 79.4762 − 70.5477 = 8.9285 percentage points. Displaying the answer as 8.9 pp rounds the result only after subtraction. Subtracting the displayed 79.5% and 70.5% would lose source precision.
- Open the NTIA Analyze Table CSV and locate
dataset=Nov 2023,variable=socialNetworkUser,universe=adultInternetUser. Physical row numbers may change in later files. - Read
income100pPropandincomeU25Prop, converting each proportion to a percentage by multiplying by 100. - Subtract the under-$25,000 percentage from the $100,000-or-more percentage. The result is a difference between groups at one time, not percent growth.
- Keep the age cutoff, internet-user denominator, family-income definition, six-month question and November 2023 period with the result.
| Input | Observation ID | Source columns |
|---|---|---|
| $100,000 or more | US:2023:income:income100p | income100pProp / income100pPropSE |
| Under $25,000 | US:2023:income:incomeU25 | incomeU25Prop / incomeU25PropSE |
Source release: us-2026-10-01-ntia-v1. Analysis record: ntia-income-2026-10-05-v1; derivation: ntia-2023-income-endpoint-gap. Source values, definitions, uncertainty, input identifiers and exact source-snapshot bytes are bound to the analysis review.
Question, survey methods and uncertainty
The activity sequence asks about things done online at least occasionally during the past six months. The social-network question is: “What about using social networks, such as Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram?” Those platform examples do not give individual-platform estimates.
One randomly selected internet user aged 15+ per household; skip the activity questions when every internet user is under 15. Proxy responses are allowed. NTIA publishes weighted aggregates from the Census Bureau Current Population Survey supplement; this analysis uses those published cells and processes no individual responses.
The source supplies a standard error for each percentage. We do not calculate a confidence interval or standard error for the endpoint gap, test significance, or adjust for other group differences. The source cells alone do not provide the full covariance information needed for such a difference calculation. Sampling errors also do not cover every reporting, nonresponse, imputation or other survey error.
November 2023 technical documentation, PDF page 148 / Attachment 8, questionnaire page 6 (USEINT / SOCIAL); interview dates 12–18 November on PDF page 7. Official tabulation code and dictionary.
Data dates, assisted review and reuse
- Survey fieldwork
- 12–18 November 2023
- Source-table publication
- 6 June 2024
- Retained source retrieval
- 1 October 2026 (UTC)
- This analysis checked
- 5 October 2026 · Assisted evidence and calculation review
This run reuses the reviewed immutable source release. It is not a new source fetch, a 2026 usage estimate or an independent human editorial review. Only one data period is used; no trend is inferred.
The selected NTIA federal aggregates and original presentations have a recorded reuse basis. The download and chart links below preserve the original data credit, population, period, uncertainty and fixed release. No source logo, copied source graphic or respondent data is included.
U.S. federal statistical work; 17 U.S.C. § 105 · Sources and rights. Source: National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), Internet Use Survey, November 2023; U.S. Census Bureau Current Population Survey. Selection and presentation by SocialUsage; no agency endorsement implied.
Inspect or reuse this comparison
Use the fixed income chart/table when you need a stable reference, or open the explorer for other supported breakdowns. Every permitted export keeps NTIA/Census credit.
