Exclusive: OpenVault Data Looks at Usage by Household Income and Size

New 3Q data from OpenVault overlays county-by-county Census data in the U.S. atop county-by-county usage and provisioned speed data. One of the surprising findings: Households with an income under $50,000 use more gigabits of data than other income groups. Maybe they’re streaming more video? The demo averaged 638.5 GB of usage compared to 622.4 GB for those earning $150,0000+. Less surprising is that the higher income segment had the highest provisioned downstream speed average at 712.5 Mbps, indicating that higher earners are more willing to pay for faster speed tiers.

OpenVault also took a look at how the size of a household correlated with usage. While it’s not shocking to see the largest households consuming the most gigabits, it’s interesting to see just how big of a differential there is. Households with 4-5 people average 1125 GB, while the smallest households didn’t crack 400 GB. There were fewer distinctions for downstream speeds among households, which could signal that internet customers aren’t choosing their speed tiers based on the number of users in a household. But it also may be indicative of how operators are increasingly moving subscribers to faster speeds.