California Digital Equity Public Online Survey

The Digital Equity Public Online Survey was launched in May 2023 to allow Californians across the state to provide input that would help inform the State’s Digital Equity Plan and its allocation of millions of dollars to address broadband access, affordability, and adoption in the coming years.

California’s groundbreaking Digital Equity Public Online Survey was available in 14 languages and included an audio option to hear spoken, recorded questions to enable Californians statewide (including those with vision or reading impairments) to respond. The survey was also compatible with both desktop and mobile devices and included a speed test to allow respondents to measure and report their internet speed in real-time.

The Public Online Survey was created to complement the Digital Equity Telephone Survey to allow for more responses at the local and regional levels. It was vetted and widely disseminated through the state’s digital equity ecosystem. The Public Online Survey closed with 43,432 responses from all 58 California counties, with a final tally of 36,273 responses after data cleaning and validation.

See below for a breakdown of responses by geography, responses by covered populations across California relative to Census data for each covered population, and responses by language used to complete the survey.  

Survey Responses by County

Online Public Survey Responses by County

Number of ResponsesCounty Name
More than 1000 responsesSan Diego, Los Angeles, Mendocino, San Francisco, El Dorado
More than 500 responsesTuolumne, Sacramento, Shasta, Santa Clara, Orange, Santa Barbara, Nevada, Riverside, Alameda, Placer, Monterey, Humboldt, Madera, San Bernardino, Calaveras, Santa Cruz
251-500 responsesButte, Merced, Fresno, Contra Costa, Inyo, Sonoma, Yuba, Sutter, San Benito, San Mateo, Solano, Ventura, Kings, San Luis Obispo, Trinity, Lake, Tulare, Imperial
100 to 250 responsesSiskiyou, San Joaquin, Yolo, Del Norte, Napa, Kern, Plumas, Stanislaus, Sierra, Mono, Alpine, Amador, Lassen, Marin, Colusa, Tehama
Less than 100 responsesMariposa, Glenn, Modoc, Unanswered

Survey Responses by Covered Population

A bar graph showing the Statewide Digital Equity Online Public Survey respondents by covered population.
 
The graph compares each covered population by respondents from the online survey and the state of California as follows:
 
Aging Individuals 60 and older
Online Survey 53%
State of California 20%
 
Women
Online Survey 48%
State of California 50%
 
Racial or Ethnic Minority Groups
Online Survey 44%
State of California 64%
 
Individuals in Households below 150% FPL
Online Survey 29%
State of California 20%
 
Individuals Primarily Residing in Rural Areas
Online Survey 28%
State of California 6%
 
Individuals with Disabilities
Online Survey 21%
State of California 11%
 
Veterans
Online Survey 11%
State of California 4%
 
Immigrants
Online Survey 9%
State of California 26%
 
Individuals with Limited English Proficiency
Online Survey 9%
State of California 16%
 
LGBTQIA+ Individuals
Online Survey 6%
State of California 9%
 
Unhoused Individuals
Online Survey 3%
State of California 1%
 
Tribal Communities
Online Survey 1%
State of California 2%

Survey Responses by Language

Language# of ResponsesPercent of all Responses
English 39,35391%
Spanish 2,4456%
Simplified Chinese 7362%
Traditional Chinese 3461%
Arabic 1370.3%
Vietnamese 1110.3%
Persian 610.1%
Korean590.1%
Tagalog580.1%
Russian 580.1%
Japanese400.1%
Khmer14
Punjabi13
Armenian1

Additional Resources

For additional key findings from the California Digital Equity Public Online Survey, see the complete Digital Equity Online Survey Analysis and Needs Assessment Data Report, Digital Equity Online Public Survey Select Findings, and SDEP Online Public Survey Summary Tables.