Report: One in Three U.S. Adults Owns a Tablet

A new report from the Pew Internet and American Life project finds that 34 percent of Americans over eighteen now own a tablet. People in their thirties and forties with incomes over $75,000 were most likely to be tablet owners.

Suzanne Choney with NBC News reported, “Tablets are becoming more familiar members of the American household, with 34 percent of adults now owning a tablet, ‘almost twice as many’ as a year ago, according to a new study. Last year, 18 percent of adults had a tablet, be it an iPad, Kindle, Samsung Galaxy Tab or other device, said the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project in a report entitled ‘Tablet Ownership 2013.'”

CNET’s Joan E. Solsman noted, “Tablet owners tend to older and more well-heeled than demographics for other consumer electronics. The majority of tablet owners are people living in households earning at least $75,000 a year, at 56% of respondents.”

According to the report, “Unlike smartphones, which are most popular with younger adults ages 18-34, we see the highest rates of tablet ownership among adults in their late thirties and early forties. In fact, almost half (49%) of adults ages 35-44 now own a tablet computer, significantly more than any other age group. Adults ages 65 and older, on the other hand, are less likely to own a tablet (18%) than younger age groups.”

Adweek’s Lucia Moses added, “Pew also released a portrait of the demographics of tablet owners and found little statistically significant difference in tablet ownership when it comes to gender and race/ethnicity. It seems like the biggest determinants of tablet ownership are geography, income and parenthood.”