Cellphones: New State-Level Estimates
The National Center for Health Statistics, the federal outfit whose data on the sharp growth in the "cell-only" population has convinced many pollsters to expand their techniques, today released state-by-state estimates on cellphone usage. The results are sure to roil those doing survey research in Oklahoma, Utah and right here in the District of Columbia.
The new report estimates that a quarter of all adults in Washington, D.C. and Oklahoma have only cellphone service at home, the top rate in the nation. In Utah, the NHIS puts the figure at 24 percent. The range across the states is big, dropping all the way to 4 percent in Delaware.
These estimates are just that, they're "estimates" based on a complicated model using national and state-level data. The results have wide error margins, amplified among jurisdictions with fewer people. The widest possible range for the percentage of cell-only adults in D.C. is between 15.2 and 34.1 percent.
That said, these numbers probably underestimate the cell-only population across states as the model uses 2007 data, and we know from newer NHIS surveys that the cell-only population rose by about three percentage points nationally after those data were collected.
The full list follows, and here's a link to the new report.
District of Columbia 25.4 Oklahoma 25.1 Utah 23.9 Nebraska 22.4 Kentucky 21.6 Idaho 21.3 Arkansas 21.2 Tennessee 20.8 New Mexico 20.5 Mississippi 20.3 Texas 19.5 South Carolina 19.2 Iowa 18.9 North Dakota 18.1 Oregon 18.1 Arizona 17.1 Minnesota 16.5 Washington 15.6 Florida 15.5 Michigan 15.3 Colorado 15.2 Illinois 15.2 Kansas 15.2 Georgia 15 North Carolina 14.8 Louisiana 13.8 Wisconsin 13.6 Alaska 13.3 Ohio 13.1 Indiana 13 Wyoming 13 Alabama 12.2 Maine 12 New York 10.6 West Virginia 10.6 Nevada 10.1 Virginia 10 Maryland 9.8 Pennsylvania 9.2 New Hampshire 8.9 California 8.4 Massachusetts 8.4 Missouri 8.4 Hawaii 8.2 South Dakota 6.8 New Jersey 6.1 Montana 5.4 Rhode Island 5.3 Connecticut 4.8 Vermont 4.6 Delaware 4
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