One in Five U.S. Adults Has No Landline

A new poll from Harris Interactive finds that one in five U.S. adults don't have landline phone service, relying instead on mobile phones and VoIP.

Results from a new series of polls from research firm Harris Interactive finds that one in five U.S. adults don’t have landline phone service, with most instead relying on mobile phones of VoIP calling for their communications needs. The results, compiled by analyzing four online surveys conducted between October 2007 and January 2008, also show that dropping landlines in favor of cell services is no longer a clear sign of youth, with about half of those cell-phone-only users being age 30 or over.

Overall, the survey found that 89 percent of U.S. adults have a mobile phone, which represents a significant increase over the the 77 percent who reported owning mobile phones in a previous analysis uring October–December 2006. Most (75 percent) U.S. adults are using multiple telephone technologies, but 14 percent report using only their cell phonee, while 6 percent report using a mix of cell phones and VoIP. Roughly 9 percent of respondents report they only use a traditional landline phone.

Cell-phone only phone users are still likely to be at the young end of the demographic scale, with about half (49 percent) between the ages of 18 and 29. However, this has decreased from 2006, when the same age bracket constituted 55 percent of the cell phone-only population. Compared to the general population, the Harris surveys found that cell-phone only users are more likely to have some college education (60 percent compared to 53 percent), more likely to be male (57 percent compared to 48 percent of the general population(), and more likely to have an income under $15,000 (16 percent versus 9 percent of the general population). This suggests the cell phone-only lifestyle appeals not only to educated, technologically savvy users looking to reduce redundancy in their lives, but also to U.S. adults with limited means who find a mobile phone a better use of their money than a landline.