Hi Nancy, I was going to suggest you look at http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats2.htm. But I just realised that these do not go further back than 2000 either. I thought I'd send you the link any way even if it won't answer your question. Hope it might be of use to you or someone else.The world internet project has data for the same years (www.digitalcenter.org). Could you post a message to the list if you do find a good resource for data before 2000? I would be very interested in obtaining this information myself. Thankyou, Best wishes, Ellen J. Helsper Media and Communications Department London School of Economics and Political Science ________________________________ From: Kris Markman [mailto:krism@alumni.utexas.net] Sent: Wed 9/6/2006 21:35 To: air-l@listserv.aoir.org Subject: Re: [Air-l] american internet penetration stats?

Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 10:51:25 -0500 From: Nancy Baym <nbaym@ku.edu>

Has anyone got a good source of estimates of internet penetration in the United States over time? I am fanmiliar with Hobbes Internet Timelines' charts of total hosts, but that is not specifically American, and with Pew's charts, but those have enormous gaps prior to 2000. What I am hoping for is a simple summary of what percentage of Americans used the internet in 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, etc.

Nancy, This doesn't exactly answer your question, but the US Census Bureau began asking questions about Internet use on its Computer Use and Ownership survey in 1997. http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/computer.html There are items that hint at the existence of the Internet on the surveys prior to that year (i.e. the use of "bulletin boards"), but apparently the Internet was not on the government's radar until the late 90s. Hope that help! -Kris -- ********** ********** ********** ********** Kris M. Markman, Ph.D. Email: krism@alumni.utexas.net http://kris3198.home.comcast.net ********** ********** ********** **********