The Digital Divide

The U.S. democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton announced her tech policy agenda yesterday at an event in Denver, Colorado. The agenda outlines how Clinton plans to move forward on key issues such as online privacy, net neutrality and promoting diversity within the tech industry.

One of Clinton’s key points is to invest in the infrastructure necessary to make sure that no one is left behind in the ongoing digital revolution. Her goal is to give 100 percent of American households the option to subscribe to affordable and sufficiently fast broadband service by 2020, a goal that won’t be easy to achieve.

As our chart illustrates, proper broadband service is still far from a given outside of urban America. According to data published by the FCC earlier this year, 39 percent of Americans living in rural areas still lack access to decent broadband service. In total, roughly 34 million people are currently disconnected from digital life, as they cannot take part in online activities that require a certain connection speed.