In early December 2024, the NTIA unveiled their Local Estimates of Internet Adoption (Project LEIA) Interactive Map…

This map uses Project LEIA experimental estimates to depict household wired Internet adoption for every county in the United States in 2022. Counties with relatively higher adoption rates are filled with a darker shade of purple, while lighter shades indicate lower adoption rates. The interactive tool supports zooming and panning around the map to focus on areas of interest. Tapping or clicking on a county will open a pop-up box with more information, including the name of the county, the estimated percent of households with wired Internet service, and the margin of error for that estimate. On browsers that support it, a button to toggle full screen mode will also appear under the zoom buttons in the upper left corner.

The first question is – how is this different from the MN ranking I used for the 2024 MN Broadband County Profiles? Two big ways:

• This map looks at adoption, not access, it looks at how many households subscribe to broadband – not how many have access to subscribe.
• This map is uses data from 2022.

While having access is required to subscribing, people choose not to subscribe because it’s too expensive (that may include cost of device) for them and/or they don’t see a need for broadband. So looking at adoption rates in your county, consider how adoption compares to access and think about what roadblocks are likely for your neighbors. What could help – access, more community education classes, free computer distribution opportunities or monthly broadband subsidies?

Counties by Rank (download spreadsheet)