One of every four U.S. households has cut the cord, according to a survey conducted by the Center for Disease Control (CDC).
The CDC reported that 24.5 percent of U.S. households used only wireless phones in the second half of last year, up from 22.7 percent in the first half of last year. In addition, one of every seven households had a landline but received almost all their calls on cell phones.
The agency also found major differences in wireline defection across age and demographic groups. Nearly half of adults between the ages of 25 and 29 lived in wireless-only households compared to just 14.9 percent of adults between the ages of 45 and 64.
Adults living in poverty or near poverty were more likely to live in a wireless-only household than higher-income adults.
The findings were released in the agency's preliminary results from its July–December 2009 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). The NHIS information on household telephone status was obtained for 21,375 households that included at least one civilian adult or child. These households included 40,619 civilian adults aged 18 years and over and 14,984 children under age 18.