Survey: 13.6% of American homes have only cellphones: Cord-cutters more likely to be smokers, binge drinkers

The federal government estimates that one of every eight American homes uses only mobile phones for communications.
The data comes from the National Health Interview Survey, which was conducted between January and June of this year by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics. The government noted that the number of wireless-only households has been steadily increasing since 2003 and now accounts for 13.6% of households.
Researchers found that more than 55% of all adults living with unrelated roommates relied solely on cellphones, and noted that this is the “highest prevalence rate among the population subgroups examined.” According to the survey, other characteristics of cord-cutter households included:
–More than 28% of renters were wireless only, compared with 6.7% of homeowners.
–Nearly 31% of adults ages 25 to 29 lived in households that used only cellphones, compared with 27.9% of adults ages 18 to 24. Around 13% of adults between the ages of 30 to 44 and 7.1% of adults ages 45-64 own only cellphones. The percentage dropped dramatically for those over age 65-only 2% of those adults lived in wireless-only households.
–Men were slightly more likely than women to live in a household that had cut the cord.
–Adults in the South and Midwest were more likely to rely on wireless than people living in the Northeast.
–Hispanic adults were the most likely to be living in a wireless-only household, at about 18%-compared with 11.3% of non-Hispanic white adults, and 14.3% of non-Hispanic black adults.
–Adults living in poverty were more likely to have cut the cord than those with higher income.
As a survey of health, the NHIS also drew correlations between the status of wireless or wireline households and their health habits-or lack thereof. According to the survey, wireless-only adults were twice as likely to be binge drinkers, were more likely to be current smokers and were twice as likely to report not having health insurance as people living in homes with landlines. However, they also were more likely to report that their health was “excellent or very good,” and more likely to participate in physical activity during leisure time.