One in five American adults (21%) do not use the internet or email from any location, and a majority of these non-users have little exposure to the online world. Some 16% of non-users live in a household where someone else uses the internet (even if they personally do not) and 22% used the internet or email in the past but no longer do so. Taken together, that means that one-third (34%) of non-internet users have some familiarity with the internet, either from past personal experience or from living in a household where someone else goes online. Since we first asked these questions in spring 2002, roughly one in five non-users have consistently answered “yes” to each of these questions.

Not only are most non-users unfamiliar with the internet, they are not especially interested in getting online. Only one in ten non-users (10%) indicate that they would like to start using the internet or email in the future, a figure that is also largely unchanged from the first time we asked this question of non-users in 2002. Older non-users are especially likely say they are not interested in going online—just 5% of non-internet users ages 50 and older say that they would like to start using the internet or email.

As we have found in previous surveys, roughly half (48%) of non-internet users cite issues of relevance when asked why they do not go online. One in five (21%) point to issues related to price while 18% cite usability issues and 6% point to access or availability as the main reason they do not go online.