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Data

Share of United States households using specific technologies

About this data

Source
Various sources (2004) – processed by Our World in Data
Last updated
September 29, 2017
Date range
1860–2019
Unit
%

Sources and processing

This data is based on the following sources

Various sources – Technology diffusion - Comin and Hobijn (2004) and others

A similar dataset was previously assembled by Horace Dediu, who writes at: http://www.asymco.com/author/asymco/. We are thankful for Horace Dediu's generosity in making his dataset available. We have tracked down all of his sources and assembled our dataset based on these sources.

The latest update to the dataset is detailed here (ver 27.07.19). We thank Adam Ferris for his help in collating this data.

This dataset is a compilation of multiple sources to construct a broad overview of technology adoption in the United States. The dataset is comprised of the following sources:

  • Isard (1942) A Neglected Cycle: The Transport-Building Cycle;
  • Arnulf Grubler (1990), The rise and fall of infrastructures: dynamics of evolution and technological change;
  • Lebergott (1993) Pursuring Happiness: American Consumers in the Twentieth Century - for 1989;
  • Nicholas Felton NTY (2014), http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2008/02/10/opinion/10op.graphic.ready.html, from 2006 to 2011, data sourced from the US Census Bureau's Extended well-being;
  • Bowden and Offer (1994), Household appliances and the use of time;
  • Lebergott (1976), The American Economy: Income, Wealth and Want;
  • Gisela Rua (2013) Federal Reserve Board, Fixed costs, network effects, and the diffusion of container shipping;
  • Nielsen Television Audience (2008);
  • David Popp (2006), Exploring links between innovation and diffusion;
  • Popp, Hafner, Johnstone (2007), Policy vs. consumer pressure;
  • Bech and Hobijn (2006), Technology diffusion within central banking;
  • Pew Research Centre;
  • Statista;
  • World Bank;
  • Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP);
  • Greenwood, Seshadri & Yorikoglu (2005), Engines of Liberation.
  • Data on dishwashers, dryers, freezers, microwaves, refrigerators, and washers use the US Census Bureau's data from 1992 to 2011, using Greenwood et al. (2005) data for previous years.
Retrieved on
September 29, 2017
Retrieved from
http://www.nber.org/data/chat/
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
Horace Dediu; Comin and Hobijn (2004); other sources collated by Our World in Data.

A similar dataset was previously assembled by Horace Dediu, who writes at: http://www.asymco.com/author/asymco/. We are thankful for Horace Dediu's generosity in making his dataset available. We have tracked down all of his sources and assembled our dataset based on these sources.

The latest update to the dataset is detailed here (ver 27.07.19). We thank Adam Ferris for his help in collating this data.

This dataset is a compilation of multiple sources to construct a broad overview of technology adoption in the United States. The dataset is comprised of the following sources:

  • Isard (1942) A Neglected Cycle: The Transport-Building Cycle;
  • Arnulf Grubler (1990), The rise and fall of infrastructures: dynamics of evolution and technological change;
  • Lebergott (1993) Pursuring Happiness: American Consumers in the Twentieth Century - for 1989;
  • Nicholas Felton NTY (2014), http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2008/02/10/opinion/10op.graphic.ready.html, from 2006 to 2011, data sourced from the US Census Bureau's Extended well-being;
  • Bowden and Offer (1994), Household appliances and the use of time;
  • Lebergott (1976), The American Economy: Income, Wealth and Want;
  • Gisela Rua (2013) Federal Reserve Board, Fixed costs, network effects, and the diffusion of container shipping;
  • Nielsen Television Audience (2008);
  • David Popp (2006), Exploring links between innovation and diffusion;
  • Popp, Hafner, Johnstone (2007), Policy vs. consumer pressure;
  • Bech and Hobijn (2006), Technology diffusion within central banking;
  • Pew Research Centre;
  • Statista;
  • World Bank;
  • Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP);
  • Greenwood, Seshadri & Yorikoglu (2005), Engines of Liberation.
  • Data on dishwashers, dryers, freezers, microwaves, refrigerators, and washers use the US Census Bureau's data from 1992 to 2011, using Greenwood et al. (2005) data for previous years.
Retrieved on
September 29, 2017
Retrieved from
http://www.nber.org/data/chat/
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
Horace Dediu; Comin and Hobijn (2004); other sources collated by Our World in Data.

How we process data at Our World in Data

All data and visualizations on Our World in Data rely on data sourced from one or several original data providers. Preparing this original data involves several processing steps. Depending on the data, this can include standardizing country names and world region definitions, converting units, calculating derived indicators such as per capita measures, as well as adding or adapting metadata such as the name or the description given to an indicator.

At the link below you can find a detailed description of the structure of our data pipeline, including links to all the code used to prepare data across Our World in Data.

Read about our data pipeline

Reuse this work

  • All data produced by third-party providers and made available by Our World in Data are subject to the license terms from the original providers. Our work would not be possible without the data providers we rely on, so we ask you to always cite them appropriately (see below). This is crucial to allow data providers to continue doing their work, enhancing, maintaining and updating valuable data.
  • All data, visualizations, and code produced by Our World in Data are completely open access under the Creative Commons BY license. You have the permission to use, distribute, and reproduce these in any medium, provided the source and authors are credited.

Citations

How to cite this page

To cite this page overall, including any descriptions, FAQs or explanations of the data authored by Our World in Data, please use the following citation:

“Data Page: Share of United States households using specific technologies”. Our World in Data (2026). Data adapted from Various sources. Retrieved from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20260511-092124/grapher/technology-adoption-by-households-in-the-united-states.html [online resource] (archived on May 11, 2026).

How to cite this data

In-line citationIf you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:

Various sources (2004) – processed by Our World in Data

Full citation

Various sources (2004) – processed by Our World in Data. “Share of United States households using specific technologies” [dataset]. Various sources, “Technology diffusion - Comin and Hobijn (2004) and others” [original data]. Retrieved May 11, 2026 from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20260511-092124/grapher/technology-adoption-by-households-in-the-united-states.html (archived on May 11, 2026).

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