More Whacky Survey Numbers: 82% of 17 Year Old Have Cell Phones vs. 77% of Adults

Early warning. This is one my mini-rants about reported survey numbers that just doesn’t make sense to me. PCMag.com reports on a Pew Internet & Life Project (a very respected source) study with the unsurprising finding that…

More Kids Using Cell Phones, Study Finds

Here’s what puzzles me about the statistics that resulted from this survey. All numbers are from Pew’s 2008 survey data…

- 71% of teens in survey owned a cell phone (or more accurately used a cell phone provided by their parents or guardians)
- 77% of adults in survey owned a cell phone
- 52% of 12-to-13 year old have a cell phone
- 82% of 17 year olds have a cell phone

Look at those percentages again. Assuming an “adult” is defined as someone 21 years or older, more 17 year olds in 2008 owned cell phones than the general adult population (“general” in terms of the 2134 sample size). I think these percentages are correct, by the way. The problem is that it looks strange because of the way it is reported. If adults is anyone over 21, cell phone ownership probably starts to drop a bit with age. I suspect cell phone ownership in the 21 to 25 age group is as high or higher than the 17 year old group. But, averaging “adults” from 21 to, perhaps, 100, and then comparing it just to people 17 years old doesn’t make sense when comparing cell phone ownership.

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