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More are ditching landlines in favor of cell phonesDec 18, 2008 (The Florida Times-Union - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- More than one in six households have ditched their landline phones in favor of cell phones, new research out Wednesday shows. Just a year before, it was one in eight. And it's nearly three times as many as in 2005, according to a survey released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There are stark demographic differences between wireless-only households and those who have a landline. Low-income and younger adults are more likely to live in households with cell phones but no land line. That has researchers worried that telephone-based survey data -- on everything from politics to health -- will grow more flawed if it continues to depend only on landline phones. ONE IN THREE About a third of all adults in their 20s live in households with only cell phones. By contrast, only 2.8 percent of people 65 and older live in wireless-only households. 32 MILLION The number of adults living in "wireless mostly" households. They account for about 23 percent of households that had both landlines and cell phones but reported receiving all or almost all calls on the cell phones. On the flip side, the number of adults living in a household with just a landline but no cell phone has fallen to 18 percent, an all-time low. 26 PERCENT Percentage of adults living in poverty in wireless-only households. Only 14 percent of higher-income adults live with only cell phones. For those with shaky credit or limited resources, pre-paid phones have become a better alternative to monthly cell-phone plans or landlines, which can require large deposits. ONE IN FIVE Proportion of cell-phone-only households in the South -- twice as many as in the Northeast, where 9.8 percent of households were wireless-only. That could be because of demographics: The South is generally younger and has a higher rate of poverty. To see more of The Florida Times-Union -- including its homes, jobs, cars and other classified listings -- or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.jacksonville.com. Copyright (c) 2008, The Florida Times-Union, Jacksonville Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |