Steele County Digital Equity Profile – ranked 14

Every year, the Blandin on Broadband blog does County Broadband Profiles (and will do again when the new maps come out) but given federal opportunities are making it possible to get funding for access and adoption, I thought I’d try to present information for counties to assess their digital equity standing (see table below) and give options for who to contact locally for more information.

Summary

Steele County ranks 14 out of 87 counties for digital equity. Steele County ranks well overall because their ranking for broadband at speeds of 100 Mbps down and 20 up is 3! Their other rankings are not as good. That’s an opportunity to use broadband to improve educational attainment or lower poverty rates.

Scroll down for details and suggested resources for more information.

Blandin Foundation is using the Microsoft Digital Equity Tool to determine needs by county and make high level recommendations for next steps to consider based on the data. (With special thanks to Carter Grupp, Broadband Coordinator Broadband Coordinator at American Connection Project for Otter Tail County.) Visit the tool if you want to look up more statistics on your community.

Demographic Data and Ranking (out of 87)

Steele County	Ranking
Access to 100/20	3
No bachelors	32
No HS degree	53
Below 150% poverty (last 12 months)	34
Below poverty (last 12 months)	33
Disability	26
No computer	36
No broadband access	1
No subscription	16
Overall average	14

The map below shows digital inequity by census tract. The bluer the better; yellow and orange colors indicate more inequity. This map can be helpful in figuring out which parts of your county need the most help.