Cell phones: The choice of the young and the poor

Apparently cell phones have become much more popular than landlines--in fact, they are now the preferance. More than one in eight households in the U.S. have cell phones but lack traditional landline telephones, according to a federal study released Monday that tracks the country's increasing dependence on wireless phones.

Many are beginning to catch on to the new trend as well. Some pollsters, who typically rely on random calls to households with landline telephones, have begun calling cell-phone users instead, which is more expensive and makes it harder to ensure their samples are truly random.

Federal data showed that young, poor, male and Hispanic people are more likely to rely only on the cell phone and lose the landline. 18 percent of Hispanic adults have cell phones but no landlines. 11 percent of white adults and 14 percent of black adults only used cell phones. Roughly three in 10 ptopl age 18 to 29 had only cell phones--more than double the number of those 30 and older who rely only on cell phones. About one in five poor people only use cell phones, at double the percentage for those who are not poor. And 59 percent of households have landlines and cell phones, both--24 percent have only landlines.

The National Health Interview Survey represents the first half of 2007 and was consucted by the CDC.

The AP story can be found here.

--Anna Mavromati