To What Extent Does Socioeconomic Status Influence Online Participation?
Juhyeok Sim
09/09/2026
The second level digital divide, a gap in digital skills among those who have access to the Internet (Hargittai, 2002; DiMaggio et al., 2001), caused a shift in the research of digital divide from mere physical Internet access to differences in how individuals actually use the available technology. While some actively engage online, others remain passive consumers. This study investigates whether socioeconomic status (SES) has an influence on the likelihood of active engagement. Using data from the World Values Survey Wave 7 from over 97,000 respondents across 64 countries and societies, the analysis uses logistic regression models to examine the relationship between SES, measured by education level in ISCED scale and household income, and four indicators of active online political participation: searching for political information, signing electronic petitions, encouraging others to take political action, and organizing political events. Models control for age and sex.
The results show that higher education and income status are positively and statistically significantly associated with all four tested forms of active participation while the controlled demographic factors showed no significance. These findings indicate that socioeconomic resources may continue to influence online civic voice, suggesting that lower SES individuals may remain underrepresented while higher SES individuals have high representation. This study contributes empirical evidence to evaluate and confirm the degree of impact second level digital divide has on the type of engagement accessed.