If your audience is rural based you might be interested to know that 24% of rural Americans have Broadband according to a recent PEW/INTERNET study.  On the other hand, if your audience lives in metropolitan areas mainly, about 39% will be using Broadband Internet (ie: DSL, Cable, Satellite).

Some of my residential architect clients sell to mostly rural clients - their sites need to load fast even though there are many thumbnails of house plans on their sites.

Some of my other clients, ie: www.Opinionsource.com (a site/newsletter sent out several times a week) turns out to have an audience that’s mainly in metropolitian areas (Urban) both in the US and internationally.  

When I read different PEW/INTERNET reports I get confused as one of the studies also said 53% of home internet users have high-speed access, creating a new divide among internet users.

Think about this…..how can you say in one recent study that only 39% of urban dwellers have high speed connections in one study and then say that 53% of home internet users have high speed access?   Is Pew Adding the 39% Urban + 24% Rural saying that equates to 53% of all internet access in high speed?

That must be it.  Figured it out; they should have said that in the first place instead of breaking it up into two different studies.