Every year, the Blandin on Broadband blog does County Broadband Profiles (and will do again when the new maps come out) but given federal opportunities are making it possible to get funding for access and adoption, I thought I'd try to present information for counties to assess their digital equity standing (see table below) and give options for who to contact locally for more information.
Summary
Olmsted County ranks 5 out of 87 counties for digital equity. Clearly ranking fifth is very good. Looking at the individual tracts, they can see that access to technology (broadband at speeds of 100 Mbps down and 20 up ranks 4, broadband subscription rates ranks 7 and computer ownership ranks 6. But the demographic tracts, such as percent of population living below poverty is higher at rank 40. This indicates an opportunity to use the technology to make improvements to the community.
Scroll down for details and suggested resources for more information.
Blandin Foundation is using the Microsoft Digital Equity Tool to determine needs by county and make high level recommendations for next steps to consider based on the data. (With special thanks to Carter Grupp, Broadband Coordinator Broadband Coordinator at American Connection Project for Otter Tail County.) Visit the tool if you want to look up more statistics on your community.
Demographic Data and Ranking (out of 87)
| Olmsted County | Ranking |
| Access to 100/20 | 4 |
| No bachelors | 3 |
| No HS degree | 20 |
| Below 150% poverty (last 12 months) | 26 |
| Below poverty (last 12 months) | 40 |
| Disability | 20 |
| No computer | 6 |
| No broadband access | 6 |
| No subscription | 7 |
| Overall average | 5 |
The map below shows digital inequity by census tract. The bluer the better; yellow and orange colors indicate more inequity. This map can be helpful in figuring out which parts of your county need the most help.
So where do you go to talk to people in the county about digit equity plans? Good places to start include:
Libraries
Schools
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