Digital access is at an all-time high in California—but progress has slowed since the early days of the pandemic.

• A record-high 96% of Californians had access to internet—including satellite—at home in 2023, the year of most recent data. This is up from 92% in 2019. Access increased most among historically marginalized communities: 95% of Black households had internet, up from 88% in 2019; increases were similar among Latino, low-income, and rural households, as well as households headed by non–college graduates.
• A lower share of California households have broadband/high-speed internet access (84%, the same as it had been in 2019), and the variation between race/ethnic, socioeconomic, and geographic groups is greater. Black (83%), Latino (80%), and low-income (77%) households have the lowest levels of high-speed access, and each saw only small increases of 1 or 2 percentage points since 2019.
• The share of California households with a desktop, laptop, or other device (not counting mobile phones) increased by 2 percentage points, from 87% in 2019 to 89% in 2023. Device access increased between 4 to 6 percentage points among Black, Latino, and low-income households. Despite widespread distribution of devices in schools during the pandemic, households with school-aged children saw only a modest increase in access, from 93% to 94%.

Disparities persist along racial/ethnic, socioeconomic, and geographic lines.

• Since 2019, no gains in broadband access have been made among rural, low-income, and non-college-degree households. Only 71%, 77%, and 80%, respectively, have such access at home.
• About 5% of Black, Latino, low-income, and non-college-degree households have no internet at all.
• Low-income, rural, and non-degree-holding households have made only incremental progress in gaining access to internet-compatible devices since 2019 and report device access of between 82% and 84%.

Californians use the internet for a wide variety of purposes.

• Most Californians use the internet for communication, commerce, and social services. Ninety-five percent are texting or instant messaging, 72% engage in social networks such as Facebook, X, or Instagram, and 70% use video/voice services such as FaceTime or Zoom.
• More than half of Californians access essential services online. More than three-quarters use the internet for financial transactions, such as banking, investing, paying bills, or sending money; 63% access health records or insurance information online; and 48% use it to access government services, such as registering to vote or renewing a driver’s license. Black, Latino, low-income, and non-college-degree households are less likely to use the internet for those purposes.
• Many Californians use the internet for work-related purposes: 30% telecommute, 26% take virtual educational classes or job training, and 20% search or apply for jobs online.
• Accessing health/insurance information saw the highest growth of all uses since 2021: from 56% to 63% statewide, with an increase across all demographic and socioeconomic groups. Conversely, job searches/applications declined, from 25% to 20% overall, again with a decrease across all population sectors.

Federal and state investments shift as pandemic-era funding expires.

• The pandemic spurred multiple federal- and state-level investments in availability, affordability, and adoption—three keys to universal digital access. Some programs from that era are now closing down. For example, federal monthly subsidies for household internet and funds to assist libraries and schools in supporting students ceased operations in 2024.
• Still operating is the federal Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program (part of the 2021 infrastructure bill), which provides $42 billion for digital equity planning, expanding infrastructure, and increasing broadband use and adoption. California has been allocated approximately $2 billion based on its share of unserved locations.
• At the state level, Senate Bill (SB) 156 (2021) provided $6 billion to expand broadband access, including $3 billion to create an open-access middle-mile network (infrastructure that connects global and local networks), $2 billion to expand the last-mile network (connecting to businesses and homes), and $750 million to help local governments complete last-mile projects. Most of this funding comes from the federal American Rescue Plan Act. This resource will also be sunsetting in the next 18 months; the money had to be encumbered by December 2024 and must be spent by December 2026.