Historically white Americans have had greater access to the internet than have African Americans. In fact, by a 59%-to-45% margin, whites are more likely to go online using a computer on a typical day than are African Americans. But with more African Americans using mobile devices to go online the gap is closing. Fully 48% of blacks have used a mobile device at some point to access the internet, while only 28% of whites have done so. As a result, when mobile access is included, 54% of African Americans go online on the average day compared with 61% of whites; the access gap is cut in half. And growth in mobile internet access has been rapid. In 2007, only 12% of blacks used the internet on a mobile device on an average day. Now roughly three-in-ten do, an increase of 141%. Read More

Russell Heimlich  is a former web developer at Pew Research Center.