Wireless substitution: state-level estimates from the National Health Interview Survey, 2010-2011.

OBJECTIVES This report updates subnational estimates of the percentage of adults and children living in households without a landline telephone but with at least one wireless telephone (i.e., wireless-only households). State-level estimates for 2011 are presented, as well as estimates for selected U.S. counties and groups of counties, for other household telephone service use categories (e.g., those that had only landlines and those that had landlines yet received all or almost all calls on wireless telephones), and for two earlier 12-month periods (January-December 2010 and July 2010-June 2011). METHODS Small-area statistical modeling techniques were used to estimate the prevalence of adults and children living in households with various household telephone service types for 93 disjoint geographic areas that make up the United States. This modeling was based on 2007-2011 data from the National Health Interview Survey, 2006-2010 data from the American Community Survey, and auxiliary information on the number of listed telephone lines per capita in 2007-2011. RESULTS The prevalence of wireless-only adults and children varied substantially across states. State-level estimates for 2011 ranged from 15.3% (Rhode Island) to 44.6% (Idaho) of adults and from 15.2% (Rhode Island) to 58.6% (Mississippi) of children.