Landline Phones Are a Dying Breed

by Felix Richter, Statista.com

As smartphones have become constant companions for most people in the United States, landline phones are rapidly losing relevance.

Ten years ago, 9 in 10 households used to have an operational landline phone – now it’s just every second household. That’s according to data provided by the Center of Disease Control and Prevention, which has been tracking phone ownership in the U.S. as a by-product of its biannual National Health Interview Survey since 2004.

If the trend continues at the current pace, and there’s little reason to believe it won’t, the majority of U.S. households could be without a landline phone as early as this year. And a few years from now, landline phones will likely have become an endangered species, much like the VCR and other technological relics. What may buy them some time on the road to total extinction, is the fact that people will continue to use them at work, if only for lack of a better alternative.

This chart shows how landline phones are gradually losing relevance in the United States.

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