We have provided these data using the SDA interface developed at the University of California, Berkeley.  SDA provides an easy to use way to access and analyze complicated quantitative data.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Bureau of the Census collected data from a nationally representative sample of Americans to asses various aspects of the "digital divide."

These are not decennial census data—the decennial census is not used to collect data on computer or Internet use. These data were collected as part of the regular monthly surveys conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau.

A 1999 grant from the National Science Foundation allowed the collection of data on Internet use from a nationally representative sample of Americans. In addition to questions about Internet usage, a large variety of demographic and attitudinal data were collected.

The 2000 General Social Survey (GSS) was a personal in-home interview that usually took about 90 minutes to complete with a national probability sample of 2,817 respondents aged 18 and older; one person was interviewed per household using sampling procedures described below. Interviewing took place between February and mid-June of 2000. The GSS survey has been conducted at one-to-two year intervals since 1972 by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago, and is generally considered the premier social science instrument for monitoring social life and trends in the United States.

2000 Data    1998 Data

The Biennial Media Consumption Survey was conducted under the direction of Princeton Survey Research Associates among a nationwide sample of 3,142 adults, 18 years of age or older, during the period April 20-May 13, 2000. This survey was based on telephone interviews. For results based on the total sample, one can say with 95% confidence that the error attributable to sampling and other random effects is plus or minus 2.5 percentage points. For results based on either form A (N=1,593) or form B (N=1,549), the sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

The 1998 survey was conducted during the period April 28-May 13, 1998. A total of 3,002 adults were interviewed in 1998, 1,157 respondents with form A and 1,499 respondents with form B.

PEW Biennial Media Consumption Survey (April 2000)
PEW Biennial Media Consumption Survey (April 1998)

Download Data

These three data sets contain data from Pew's daily tracking survey on Americans' use of the Internet. The first data set (Mar-Dec 2000) consists of 26,094 interviews completed March through December 2000. The second data set (Mar-June 2000) consists of 10,642 interviews completed March through June 2000. The third data set (the 2001 data set) consists 4,342 interviews completed in February and March of 2001. All the three surveys were done over the phone and the interviewing was conducted by the Princeton Survey Research Associates. Each month of the daily tracking survey consists of a independent random sample and the questionnaire in the 2000 datasets changed from month to month. Thus, the 2000 data sets includes a variable called month, which allows you to do separate analysis by month of interview. All the three data sets include a variable named 'weight' to adjust the biases. This weight incorporates adjustments for differential probabilities of selection, for non-response, and for post-stratification. Using the data set weight your sample size increases to 43,290 for the Mar-Dec 2000 dataset, to 21,486 for the Mar-June 2000 data set and to 9,722 for the 2001 data set.

Internet and American Life: Daily Tracking Survey
(March thru June 2000)
Internet and American Life: Daily Tracking Survey
(March thru December 2000)
Internet and American Life: Daily Tracking Survey
(February-March 2001)
PEW-Year 2000 Internet Tracking Dataset

Other PEW Internet related studies:
PEW Biennial Media Consumption Survey (April 2000)
PEW Biennial Media Consumption Survey (April 1998)
PEW Online Communities Survey (2001)
PEW Health Survey (August 2000)
PEW - Parents, Kids, and the Internet Study (Oct 2000)

Survey Home Page Survey Methodology

The Survey2000 project is a joint data collection effort of the National Geographic Society and Northwestern University. It is the largest and most comprehensive Internet-based social science survey to date, with over 80,000 respondents (80,015 surveys initiated, 54,937 completed). As a web based survey, Survey2000 is not a random sample, but a “snowball” sample, fielded during September and November of 1998. Focusing mainly on geographic mobility, community, and cultural identity, Survey2000 took full advantage of the technology’s flexibility, creating an adaptive survey that asked different questions for different types of users/respondents based on their answers on previous questions. Survey2000 is actually comprised of 3 different surveys: a U.S. and Canadian survey, an International survey, and a youth survey. The U.S. and Canadian surveys were given to those who reported they lived in those respective countries, while all other respondents received the international survey. All respondents under the age of 16, regardless of where they lived, were given the youth survey.

Principle Investigator: James C. Witte
National Geographic Survey 2000 Data

The study is based on data collected using a revolutionary new methodology developed by Knowledge Networks to conduct surveys over the Internet. Unlike surveys of Internet users or households, this new survey methodology is based on a panel of households recruited as a random telephone sample of the U.S. population. In order to use the Internet for the purpose of efficient multi-channel data collection, each household in the sample with or without prior Internet connection is equipped with a WebTV settop box, with free Internet access and email accounts.

The data for the study were collected in December 1999, from a national random sample of 4113 individuals in 2689 panel households, as a baseline for a continuing research program. Questionnaires were completed independently by each member of a panel household using their television and their WebTV controls to answer the questions displayed on the screen. To avoid contamination of results due to the fact that the study was itself conducted over the Internet (all sample households have Internet access, as a result having been equipped with WebTV), the results on Internet use presented in this study are based only on the responses of participants who had Internet access (at home or elsewhere) prior to and independent of the WebTV access installed by Knowledge Networks. The margin of sampling error is about 1.5% for results from the complete survey, and about 2.5% for the subset of Internet users.

SIQSS: Internet and Society Study Data (December 1999)
UCLA Internet Study Codebook

The Winter 1998 National Omnibus survey was the University of Maryland Survey Research Center's fourth National Omnibus survey. A total of 1,021 interviews were conducted from the SRC Telephone Center between December 15, 1997 and April 8, 1998. The objective of the University of Maryland's National Omnibus surveys is to provide a vehicle for researchers interested in collecting data on a small number of variables or who want to experimentally compare alternative versions of questions on a large sample.

Survey Design: 1,000 interviews (48 states), using a list-assisted sample, with random selection of one adult respondent within each sample household. Up to 20 callbacks; refusal conversion; two pretests and assistance with question construction. The questions available in this on-line data file are the demographic, computer and internet usage questions asked on the Winter 1998 Omnibus Survey.

University of Maryland Internet Usage Survey (Winter 1998)

Internet Questions asked on three University of Maryland's Survey Research Centers National Omnibus Polls (1996, 1997, 1999). This data was graciously provided by Professor Bruce Bimber, Department of Political Science, University of California at Santa Barbara. Funding for this research was provided by the National Science Foundation and the Center for Information Technology at the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Internet Trends 1996-1999

This survey was a nationwide telephone survey of the continental U.S. in which people were asked to report all the activities they did "yesterday." Respondents were also asked where they were during each activity.

The data file available here summarizes the time diary information for each respondent. For each type of activity, the total number of minutes spent in that activity is recorded. And for each location reported, the total number of minutes spent in that location is recorded.

There are a total of 9,386 completed telephone time diaries. Of these, 7,514 are for adults, and 1,872 are for children under the age of 18. There was one respondent (adult or child) in each sampled household.

This study was conducted for the United States Environmental Protection Agency by the Survey Research Center at the University of Maryland. Data Collection began in September 1992 and was completed in October 1994.

EPA National Time Use Survey 1994-1995

 A nationwide time diary study asking people to report all the activities they did yesterday. The diary instrument also asked where they were during and who were they with for each activity. The study was conducted for the National Science Foundation. A total 1,151 telephone time diaries were completed over a 12 month period beginning in April 1998 and ending in March 1999.

NSF Family Time Use Study: 1998-1999 Time Diaries

In depth interviews with a random sample of Internet users in Philadelphia, PA.

Web User Profiles