Internet Access Report for Southern Arizona Cities, Towns, and Census-Designated Places
The internet plays a crucial role in our daily lives, being deeply rooted in society for conducting business, engaging with the government, and communicating with people. The rapid increase in the use of the vast amount of data accessible on the web over the last thirty years has turned it into a crucial tool. However, the accessibility of the internet can differ based on factors like community infrastructure and individual income. So, what does this divide entail?
This article explores factors that affect the level of internet access for 41 communities in Southern Arizona. These communities include cities, towns, and Census Designated Places (CDP) within the counties of Cochise, Pima, Pinal, Greenlee, Graham, Santa Cruz, and Yuma. Due to the importance of mining in Greenlee County, we also include three nearby communities in New Mexico. Note that, in some instances, we do not present data for several communities because the estimates were not sufficiently precise. Additional information at the community level can be explored in the 2022 Southern Arizona Communities Snapshot.
This article investigates internet access based on types of computing devices and income. Additionally, the differences in internet usage for communities designated as urban and non-urban will be examined. Traditionally, non-urban areas tend to have less access to the internet due to insufficient infrastructure as well as the expense involved.1 The Federal Communications Commission’s 2020 Broadband Deployment report claims that “the gap in rural and Tribal America remains notable: in 2018, 22.3% of Americans in rural areas and 27.7% of Americans in Tribal lands lack coverage from fixed terrestrial 25/3 Mbps broadband, as compared to only 1.5% if Americans in urban areas.” 2 Identifying areas that are non-urban is beneficial in deciding which areas should be targeted as potential recipients for better internet infrastructure. In 2023, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced nearly $700 million in grants and loans to connect thousands of rural residents, farmers and business owners in 22 states and the Marshall Islands to reliable, affordable high-speed internet through the ReConnect Program.
At the regional level, Pima County has applied for grants from the Arizona Commerce Authority, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), and other agencies to extend high-speed fiber networks in areas that currently lack access. On June 16, 2023, the NTIA announced that Pima County will receive $30.3 million to expand broadband service to unserved and unserved areas of the county.
In this article, we categorized Southern Arizona communities as urban and non-urban based upon 2010 Census Urbanized Area boundaries for Arizona. According to the Census Bureau, an urbanized area is a region with 50,000 or more people. The Census Bureau designated four urbanized areas in Southern Arizona in 2010: Casa Grande, Tucson, Yuma, and Sierra Vista.3 These urbanized area boundaries, proximity to the boundaries, and the Southern Arizona communities’ populations were used to determine urban or non-urban designations for this article.
Figure 1 illustrates the percentage of households with an internet subscription in each Southern Arizona community, both urban and non-urban, in 2022. This includes all types of internet subscriptions such as dial-up, broadband, and cellular plans. The city of Maricopa posted the highest percentage of households with an internet subscription at 96.5%. That was 8.0 percentage points higher than the U.S. rate. The towns of Marana and Clifton followed behind at 95.7% and 95.5, respectively. Of all the Southern Arizona communities, the city of South Tucson had the lowest percentage of households with an internet subscription at 66.7%, while the city of Willcox posted the second lowest rate, 1.6 percentage points ahead at 68.3%.
Figure 1: Percent of Households with an Internet Subscription (2022)
Among the urban communities, the city of South Tucson had the lowest percentage of households with an internet subscription at 66.7% in 2022. The city of Somerton posted the second lowest rate, 8.4 percentage points ahead at 75.1% and the city of Douglas followed at 76.0%. Of the 23 urban areas explored, 9 had a lower rate of internet subscriptions than the U.S. rate of 88.5%. The city of Maricopa posted the highest rate of all urban communities at 96.5% and the town of Marana was less than one point behind at 95.7%. Figure 2 highlights the percentage of internet subscriptions for all urban areas.
Figure 2: Percent of Urban Households with an Internet Subscription (2022)
For the non-urban areas, the town of Clifton had the largest percentage of households with internet subscriptions at 95.5%. Following closely behind were the Corona de Tucson and the Vail CDP at 94.7% and 94.4%, respectively. Despite their non-urban classification, these communities had the highest percentage of households with an internet subscription of all the Southern Arizona communities analyzed. The Vail and Corona de Tucson CDPs are unique in that they are located just outside the Tucson urbanized boundary and have experienced substantial population growth since 2000. Additionally, they both have high levels of median household income, as illustrated along with all other communities in Figure 3.
Figure 3: Median Household Income (2022)
Of the non-urban areas, the city of Willcox had the lowest percentage of households with internet subscriptions at 68.3%. Of the 15 non-urban communities, 10 had a lower percentage of households with an internet subscription than the U.S. rate of 88.5%. On average, communities located in non-urban areas posted a lower rate of households with internet subscriptions than urban areas in Southern Arizona. The median percentage for urban areas was 88.9% while, for non-urban areas, the median was 85.8%. To explore the percentage of internet subscriptions for all non-urban areas see Figure 4.
Figure 4: Percent of Non-Urban Households with an Internet Subscription (2022)
Internet access is often correlated with income. Even within a community, households with higher incomes tend to have greater access to the internet. For example, in Arizona, 70.5% of households with income less than $20,000 had broadband internet. For households with income over $75,000, 95.9% had broadband. This pattern holds for all geographies regardless of urban or non-urban status.
Among the 41 communities studied here, the city of Maricopa had the highest percentage of households with broadband in the $20,000 to $74,999 and the greater than $75,000 income ranges, with 94.4% and 98.5%, respectively. The town of Sahuarita had the highest percentage of broadband use for households with income less than $20,000 at 89.6%.
On the other end of the scale, the Ajo CDP had the lowest percentage of broadband use for households with income less than $20,000 at 38.8%. The town of Miami posted the lowest percentage of broadband use for households over $75,000 with a rate of 73.4%, which is 22.5 percentage points lower than the state (95.9%). Figure 5 illustrates broadband internet access by income level for all Southern Arizona communities.
Figure 5: Percent of Households with Broadband by Income (2022)
The types of devices that households use to gain access to the internet can provide insight into the level of internet access in a community. Figure 6 displays the percentage of households in each Southern Arizona community that have one or more computing devices. This includes desktops or laptops, smartphones, and tablets. In 2022, the town of Marana had the highest percentage of households with multiple computing devices at 98.8%, while the city of South Tucson posted the lowest at 76.4%. Of the 41 communities explored, 12 had less than 90.0% of households with one or more computing devices. Each of these communities had median household incomes well below the state and the nation.
Figure 6: Percent of Households with One or More Computing Devices (2022)
Smartphones are computers as well as communication devices and, as Figure 7 shows, many households rely on them alone. In 2022, the town of Miami had the highest share at 31.3%. The Morenci CDP followed at 25.20%. Several factors contribute to a region having a high percentage of households that use only smartphones as a computing device. Among others, these factors include a region’s level of median household income and the internet infrastructure available.4 For instance, the city of South Tucson posted a high percentage of households that use only smartphones for internet (24.8%) and it had the lowest income of the 41 communities in 2022 at $34,014 (see Figure 3).
Most non-urban areas had a high rate of households using only a smartphone as a computing device. There were 16 communities with rates less than that of the U.S. (9.1%) and the state (8.2%) and only five were non-urban areas. As discussed previously, non-urban areas are less likely to have as extensive internet infrastructure as urban areas. This non-urban status may result in residents simply using their smartphones to connect to the internet rather than having multiple computing devices. In fact, places like public libraries and dining establishments have become increasingly popular as a way for residents in non-urban areas to get fast and free Wi-Fi for their mobile devices.5
Figure 7: Percent of Households with Smartphone Only (2022)
How is it measured?
Computer and internet access datacome from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS), which is a nationwide rolling survey providing estimates for demographic, social, housing, and economic measures. The s began asking computer and internet access questions in 2013 and provides both one-year and five-year estimates. This article utilized the five-year estimates. The Census Bureau also provided the urban boundary maps used to determine urban and non-urban classifications for the Southern Arizona communities.
References:
- Task Force on Agriculture and Rural Prosperity. (2017, October) Report to the President of the United States, United States Department of Agriculture, https://www.usda.gov/sites/default/files/documents/rural-prosperity-report.pdf
- Federal Communications Commission, 2020 Broadband Deployment Report, accessed March 13, 2024, 18, https://bit.ly/3VaudQe
- 2010 Census Urban and Rural Classification and Urban Area Criteria (2010), United States Census Bureau, https://www.census.gov/geo/reference/ua/urban-rural-2010.html
- Strover, S. (2018, January). Reaching rural America with broadband internet service, The Conversation, https://theconversation.com/reaching-rural-america-with-broadband-internet-service-82488
- Strover, S. (2018, January). Reaching rural America with broadband internet service, The Conversation, https://theconversation.com/reaching-rural-america-with-broadband-internet-service-82488 ;Bleiberg, J. (2014, August). How McDonald's and Corporate America are Bringing Internet Access to Rural America, Brookings Institute, https://www.brookings.edu/blog/techtank/2014/08/21/how-mcdonalds-and-corporate-america-are-bringing-internet-access-to-rural-america/
