Smartphones run this town
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More than 9 in 10 U.S. households (93%) had smartphones in 2024, according to the latest census data.
The big picture: Large majorities across demographic groups use smartphones, but habits vary by age, income and education.
- Younger U.S. adults are most likely to own one, finds a 2025 survey by the Pew Research Center.
Zoom out: Some states, including Utah, California and Texas, saw rates closer to 95% — while West Virginia, Vermont and Maine came in around 90% or below.
Zoom in: Both sides of the state line came in just under the national mark, with 92.6% of Kansas households and 92.1% of Missouri households reporting smartphones in 2024, per the American Community Survey.
- For a growing share of households, the phone is the only computer.
- About 12% of Jackson County households and nearly 19% in Wyandotte County had a smartphone but no desktop, laptop or tablet, a common measure of the digital divide.
State of play: With a phone in nearly every home, both states have started regulating where and what we scroll.
- Missouri's bell-to-bell school phone ban took effect this school year, pulling devices out of K-12 classrooms statewide.
- A 2024 Kansas law requires age verification for certain sites with content harmful to minors, and Missouri's then-attorney general filed a first-in-the-nation rule letting users pick their own content moderator, which legal experts question.
- Even governments have limited their devices: Kansas banned TikTok from state-owned tech in 2022, the same month Congress passed a federal device ban authored by Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley.
The bottom line: For now, what's in your feed is on you. Here's how to clean it up, app by app.