Lauren Goode

Recent Posts by Lauren Goode

Most Smartphone Owners Are Between 25 and 34 Years Old (And Here’s How Much Money They Make)

You might have suspected for a while now that smartphone owners tend to be young-ish, with some disposable income.

A new Nielsen survey confirms that this is the case, with a couple of exceptions. Of 20,000 U.S. mobile phone owners Nielsen surveyed last month, 48 percent said they owned a smartphone, with the 25-to-34 age group making up the largest proportion of smartphone owners, at 66 percent.

But in terms of recent subscribers — those having purchased a smartphone within the past three months — 18- to 24-year-olds are on par with the next-oldest age group in terms of smartphone ownership, and 35- to 44-year-olds are quickly catching up.

A lot of this may have to do with income: As Nielsen notes, when factoring in both age and income, older subscribers with higher incomes are more likely to have a smartphone than older subscribers with lower incomes. For example, 45- to 54-year-olds making more than $100,000 a year are nearly as likely to have a smartphone as a 35-year-old making $75,000 to $100,000 a year; or someone in the age bracket below that, making $35,000 to $50,000 a year.

But 18- to 34-year-olds making $100,000 a year or more are by far the most likely to own smartphones.

An even more interesting extrapolation of data might be what percentage of unemployed youngsters own smartphones, given the high U.S. youth unemployment rate, but all the study notes is that more than half of those making $15,000 or less a year still own the devices.

Nielsen lays this all out in a helpful bar chart, for those who want to see the full breakdown of numbers.

(Photo courtesy of Flickr/Elmarshox)

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