The Top 10 States Bridging the Broadband Gap

Introduction
Connectivity
Rural Access
Speed
Support
All State Rankings
Methodology

Whether you’re a baby boomer, millennial, or anything in between (we’re talking to you, gen Xers), your internet connection is probably more than just a modern convenience. It’s a practical necessity.

In fact, your access to internet—or lack thereof—has a direct impact on how you live your life and your potential for success, both in school and throughout your career.

Don’t buy it?

In a recent study by the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs, they found that one to three broadband providers in any given area can boost the employment growth rate by 6.4%.¹ Pretty impressive, huh?

Yet, even with all this statistical data, there are still some Americans (primarily in rural areas) who don’t have reliable access to internet—despite the efforts of many state governments to bridge the connectivity gap. That’s why we decided to do some research, mine some data, and determine which states are leading the charge when it comes to bringing high-speed internet to the rural masses.

Here’s what we found.

Connectivity Overview

An Overview Of Our Findings

Utah

New Hampshire

Massachusetts

Maryland

Oregon

Connecticut

Washington

Minnesota

New York

Virginia

The top 10 states showing excellent connectivity to broadband all value connecting rural citizens to the resources they need to succeed economically, both in school and at work.

The top state on our list? Utah. Taking cues from Silicon Valley—and home to big tech companies like Adobe, Vivint, and eBay—the Beehive State boasts a high millennial age population and a greater-than-average median income of $66,258 per year.^2,3 Utah is also one of the few places in the nation with access to Google Fiber.

Washington shows a higher-than-average percentage of the population who have both bachelor’s degrees (at 32.9%) and advanced degrees (at 12%), which beats the national average of citizens with advanced degrees (only at 11.1%).⁴ And Minnesota is a highly educated population, with 33.7% of their residents earning bachelor’s degrees while the national average is only at 29.5%.⁴

New Hampshire boasts the highest median household income in the nation, while Maryland has the 3rd highest, which could play into why they value broadband access so highly.³ Connectivity signals better access and more economic growth. And Oregon has made an emphasis on bridging the digital divide gap by rigorously advocating for Google Fiber in their state.

Overall we found that the most important factor in these states’ ability to connect rural citizens to the internet were the use of government funded broadband task forces, infrastructure maintenance, and local support. The states that listened to the community were more likely to connect them to proper resources and economic growth flourished.

State	Connectivity Ranking
Utah	1
New Hampshire	2
Massachusetts	3
Maryland	4
Oregon	5
Connecticut	6
Washington	7
Minnesota	8
New York	9
Virginia	10

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Rural Access

The Top 5 for Rural Access

Connecticut

Massachesetts

New Hampshire

New Jersey

Rhode Island

Rural areas in these states have the advantage of proximity to Ivy League schools like Harvard, Columbia, Princeton, and Yale. Perhaps the emphasis on education and communication makes it easier to access the internet as a student, even in a rural area like Connecticut.

Typically, studies have shown that areas with one to three broadband providers experience a 6.4% higher employment growth rate and a 2.4% increase in the population than the areas without broadband.¹ In the case of these states, it seems that broadband access in schools leads to a better economy.

Massachusetts recently gave out $1.9 million in broadband grants to rural communities alone.⁵ And New Hampshire is working in tandem with the University to roll out a rural broadband initiative which will give 25 Mbps to folks living away from it all.⁶

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Speed

The Top 5 for speed

Delaware

Virginia

Washington DC

Massachusetts

Rhode Island

One thing all the states with the fastest speeds have in common is their smaller size. The main reason rural access is limited is that telecommunications companies gather users in population dense areas. A major urban city may have 2,000 users per square mile while a rural area may only have 10 users per square mile. ⁷

Typically, smaller states tend to have an easier time reaching all their citizens, but the states showing the fastest speeds in remote areas have done a great job at reaching rural populations. Correlations can be made for the rise of people who run an at-home business or do freelance work to make a living. Speed is critical when it comes to maintaining a reliable connection with your employer. The relative proximity to New York City may account for rural access for telecommuters.

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Support

The Top 5 for support

Minnesota

New Hampshire

Virginia

Oregon

Maryland

A main reason why people don’t have access to broadband internet is due to a lack of income. A Pew Research poll found that 23% of people making under $30k per year don’t use the internet, possibly because of the high price for something they don’t consider a basic need. Most rural schools still lack access to fiber and pay more than twice as much for bandwidth.

In contrast, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Oregon, and Maryland all have state government broadband task forces which promote the expansion of internet access throughout their rural areas.⁸ They also develop action plans to identify disparities in access and ensure that homes and schools have access to the tech resources they might need.

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State Rankings

Rankings by state

State	Access	Rural Access	Speed	Support
Utah	2	6	7	6
New Hampshire	3	3	19	2
Massachusetts	6	2	4	16
Maryland	11	11	11	5
Oregon	9	13	17	4
Connecticut	10	1	12	21
Washington	4	8	10	22
Minnesota	14	19	23	1
New York	22	16	8	11
Virginia	17	36	2	3
New Jersey	13	4	9	35
California	12	18	13	19
Rhode Island	20	5	5	33
Alaska	7	10	31	20
Vermont	15	12	29	15
Hawaii	8	14	42	18
Wyoming	18	17	34	13
Texas	1	37	25	23
Colorado	5	7	30	45
Delaware	23	24	1	40
Illinois	28	31	24	7
North Dakota	30	21	6	34
Nevada	16	9	27	41
Wisconsin	29	20	18	27
Maine	26	15	45	17
Georgia	36	38	22	8
Idaho	25	22	48	10
South Dakota	35	32	16	31
Florida	24	29	20	42
Arizona	19	35	33	29
Iowa	33	30	44	12
District of Columbia	27	51	3	39
Ohio	32	26	39	28
Nebraska	21	23	32	51
Pennsylvania	38	25	14	50
Michigan	34	33	15	47
Indiana	41	34	21	38
Kansas	31	28	41	37
Missouri	40	40	28	30
Montana	37	27	40	36
Kentucky	42	42	51	9
West Virginia	46	41	43	14
Oklahoma	43	43	38	24
South Carolina	45	46	35	32
Tennessee	44	44	26	44
North Carolina	39	39	36	48
New Mexico	49	48	49	25
Alabama	47	47	37	43
Mississippi	51	50	47	26
Louisiana	48	45	46	49
Arkansas	50	49	50	46

Access
Rural Access
Speed
Support

Texas 1
Utah 2
New Hampshire 3
Washington 4
Colorado 5
Massachusetts 6
Alaska 7
Hawaii 8
Oregon 9
Connecticut 10
Maryland 11
California 12
New Jersey 13
Minnesota 14
Vermont 15
Nevada 16
Virginia 17
Wyoming 18
Arizona 19
Rhode Island 20
Nebraska 21
New York 22
Delaware 23
Florida 24
Idaho 25
Maine 26
District of Columbia 27
Illinois 28
Wisconsin 29
North Dakota 30
Kansas 31
Ohio 32
Iowa 33
Michigan 34
South Dakota 35
Georgia 36
Montana 37
Pennsylvania 38
North Carolina 39
Missouri 40
Indiana 41
Kentucky 42
Oklahoma 43
Tennessee 44
South Carolina 45
West Virginia 46
Alabama 47
Louisiana 48
New Mexico 49
Arkansas 50
Mississippi 51

Connecticut 1
Massachusetts 2
New Hampshire 3
New Jersey 4
Rhode Island 5
Utah 6
Colorado 7
Washington 8
Nevada 9
Alaska 10
Maryland 11
Vermont 12
Oregon 13
Hawaii 14
Maine 15
New York 16
Wyoming 17
California 18
Minnesota 19
Wisconsin 20
North Dakota 21
Idaho 22
Nebraska 23
Delaware 24
Pennsylvania 25
Ohio 26
Montana 27
Kansas 28
Florida 29
Iowa 30
Illinois 31
South Dakota 32
Michigan 33
Indiana 34
Arizona 35
Virginia 36
Texas 37
Georgia 38
North Carolina 39
Missouri 40
West Virginia 41
Kentucky 42
Oklahoma 43
Tennessee 44
Louisiana 45
South Carolina 46
Alabama 47
New Mexico 48
Arkansas 49
Mississippi 50
District of Columbia 51

Delaware 1
Virginia 2
District of Columbia 3
Massachusetts 4
Rhode Island 5
North Dakota 6
Utah 7
New York 8
New Jersey 9
Washington 10
Maryland 11
Connecticut 12
California 13
Pennsylvania 14
Michigan 15
South Dakota 16
Oregon 17
Wisconsin 18
New Hampshire 19
Florida 20
Indiana 21
Georgia 22
Minnesota 23
Illinois 24
Texas 25
Tennessee 26
Nevada 27
Missouri 28
Vermont 29
Colorado 30
Alaska 31
Nebraska 32
Arizona 33
Wyoming 34
South Carolina 35
North Carolina 36
Alabama 37
Oklahoma 38
Ohio 39
Montana 40
Kansas 41
Hawaii 42
West Virginia 43
Iowa 44
Maine 45
Louisiana 46
Mississippi 47
Idaho 48
New Mexico 49
Arkansas 50
Kentucky 51

Minnesota 1
New Hampshire 2
Virginia 3
Oregon 4
Maryland 5
Utah 6
Illinois 7
Georgia 8
Kentucky 9
Idaho 10
New York 11
Iowa 12
Wyoming 13
West Virginia 14
Vermont 15
Massachusetts 16
Maine 17
Hawaii 18
California 19
Alaska 20
Connecticut 21
Washington 22
Texas 23
Oklahoma 24
New Mexico 25
Mississippi 26
Wisconsin 27
Ohio 28
Arizona 29
Missouri 30
South Dakota 31
South Carolina 32
Rhode Island 33
North Dakota 34
New Jersey 35
Montana 36
Kansas 37
Indiana 38
District of Columbia 39
Delaware 40
Nevada 41
Florida 42
Alabama 43
Tennessee 44
Colorado 45
Arkansas 46
Michigan 47
North Carolina 48
Louisiana 49
Pennsylvania 50
Nebraska 51

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Our Methodology

Our team of technology experts analyzed four metrics, including best speed per state, best broadband access for rural citizens per state, best measure of support in each state, and an overall ranking which combines all factors.

For internet access per state, our team analyzed the percentage of school districts meeting a minimum of 100 Kbps per student.⁹ We also examined the percentage of those with an internet subscription, and the total percentage of users with any access to the internet at all, be it in the form of a community library, town hall, or school.⁴

We made sure to analyze speed by the average Mbps per state, and we evaluated states on whether they had a stimulus project, broadband task force, or whether the state had barriers preventing them from expanding the connectivity of those living in the area (i.e. laws, infrastructure support, prohibitions, etc.).^10,11,8 As for rural area access, we investigated the number of households that had broadband internet in both urban and rural areas.⁴

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1. http://www.cfra.org/news/170126/digital-divide-rural-america

2. http://www.governing.com/topics/urban/gov-generational-population-data-maps-by-state.html

3. http://www.kff.org/other/state-indicator/median-annual-income/

4. https://www.census.gov/

5. http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2016/12/three_rural_communities_get_19.html

6. https://www.unh.edu/broadband/rural-broadband-initiative

7. http://www.newgeography.com/content/002747-new-us-urban-area-data-released

8. http://www.ncsl.org/research/telecommunications-and-information-technology/state-broadband-task-forces-commissions.aspx

9. http://stateofthestates.educationsuperhighway.org/

10. https://www.fastmetrics.com/internet-connection-speed-map-usa.php

11. https://muninetworks.org/communitymap