Survey Says 35% Of U.S. Adults Own A Smartphone

Who owns a smartphone? The better question may be: who doesn't own a smartphone? The Pew Research Center has just conducted a poll, and they found that one-third of American adults own a smartphone. Actually, a bit more: 35%. And that's just adults; based on the amount of kids we see walking around NYC with smartphones, that number would likely be higher if the scope was wider. The Project’s May survey found that 83% of US adults have a cell phone of some kind, and that 42% of them own a smartphone.

The survey also found that those who are well-educated are more likely to own one, and they also found that younger folks are indeed more likely as well. Those under the age of 45 – 58% of Americans between the ages of 25 and 34 now own a smartphone as do 49% of those ages 18-24 and 44% of those ages 35-44. Urban and suburban residents are roughly twice as likely to own a smartphone as those living in rural areas, and employment status is also strongly correlated with smartphone ownership.


As for usage cases? Some 87% of smartphone owners access the internet or email on their handheld, including two-thirds (68%) who do so on a typical day. When asked what device they normally use to access the internet, 25% of smartphone owners say that they mostly go online using their phone, rather than with a computer. While many of these individuals have other sources of online access at home, roughly one third of these “cell mostly” internet users lack a high-speed home broadband connection.

So, where do you stack up here? Are you a statistic, so to speak?