eMarketer posted a story talking about mobile-only households that included a state-by-state breakdown. These stats are actually from 2007 and were compiled by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) which is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). And the reason they are tracking this type of information is "to assess potential implications for data collection from health surveys and other research conducted using random-digit-dialing methods on landline phones."
So here are some interesting tidbits:
There were ten states that had over 20% of the households and adults with only mobile phone service: Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas and Utah. You read that right: 20% of the states had over 20% mobile only users!
In 2007, nearly 15% of all US households were wireless-only, with wireless-only adults making up 13.7% of the population.
The numbers for 2008 are still being figured out. Through the halfway point, the numbers were 17.5% and 16.1% respectively. Clearly trending up.
In case you were curious, the states under 10% include: Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, and where I make my home, California (I blame Comcast and their Triple-Play product offering).
No doubt that the major wireless carriers are monitoring these stats closely.
