4 ms·

"The average US household has 21 Wi-Fi devices"... wtf?

by 725686 1y ago

lynndotpy 1y ago
And that's not to mention everything else on the 2.4GHz band :) Bluetooth, zigbee, your microwave, etc
MrZander 1y ago
That seems very high to me. A family of four each has 5 devices connected at the same time?
- paxys 1y ago
  Smartphone, laptop, tablet, watch - that's 4 already. And this isn't just counting personal devices. Include TV, streaming stick, game console, printers, bulbs, plugs, speakers, doorbell, security cameras, thermostat and you'll hit that number pretty quick.
  - MrZander 1y ago
    There are 16 devices on my WiFi right now and I would've though I was above average. I have a bunch of weird stuff like 3 Raspberry Pis that most households would not have, but I don't have most of the stuff you listed. I guess I am less "connected" than the average American. Can't say I feel like I am missing out, though.
- kllrnohj 1y ago
  Check your network and see how many wifi devices you have. I'm up to 60+ thanks to a handful of IoT devices, smart speakers, etc... It adds up quick.
- drob518 1y ago
  Most of your mobile devices are doing background tasks. It’s not typically high bandwidth stuff, but they are connected even when you aren’t using them.
- tzs 1y ago
  I'm single and have 11 devices on 2.4 GHz: Wireless temperature monitor Sync module for some Blink cameras 2 smart plugs Roomba 5 smart lights RPi 3 3 of the smart lights I currently don't need and and so aren't actually connected. That leaves 8 connected 2.4 GHz devices. On 5 GHz I've got 16 devices: Amazon Fire Stick iPad Printer Echo Show Apple Watch Surface Pro 4 iMac Nintendo Switch EV charger Mac Studio A smart plug Google Home Mini Echo Dot RPi 4 Kindle iPhone The iMac and the Surface Pro 4 are almost never turned on, and the printer is also most of the time. That leaves 13 regularly connected 5 GHz devices. That's a total of 21 devices usually connected on my WiFi, right what the article says is average. :-)
IshKebab 1y ago
Doesn't seem unreasonable. Look at your router. I have 17 and I would say we're a totally normal household - the kids don't even have phones yet. We have 2 phones, a tablet for the kids, a couple of Google homes, a Chromecast, 2 yoto players, a printer, a smart TV, 2 laptops, a raspberry pi, a solar power Inverter, an Oculus Quest, and a couple of things that have random hostnames. It adds up.
isaacdl 1y ago
I live alone, and just counted, I have 10 in regular use. A few more that can connect to WiFi but aren’t (why would I want my tower fans on the internet, anyway?) I had probably 20 prior to swapping out some smart light bulbs and switches for Zigbee. 21 for an average household isn’t nuts.
gnabgib 1y ago
Doesn't take long to add up. Family of 4 - every phone, including prior generation which might be off in a draw: 3-8 Router, and extenders (multi floor house): 1-4 Chromecast|Sonos|Apple speaker/Chromecast|google|firestick|roku|apple TV/smart speaker/hifi receiver/eaves dropping devices: 2-10 Smart doorbell/light switch/temperature sensor/weather station/co2|co detector/flood detector/bulb/led strip/led light/nanoleaf/garage door: 4-16 Some cars: 0-2 Some smart watches speak wifi: 0-4 Computers.. maybe the desktops are wired (likely still support wifi), all laptops, chromebooks, and tablets : 3-8 All game consoles, many TVs, some computer monitors: 3-8 Some smart appliances: 0-4 (based on recent news of ads, best to aim for 0)
- chrismorgan 1y ago
  The numbers still feel pretty outlandish to me. The biggest factor in your count, and I think it is the one with the highest ceiling, is smart devices. Trouble is, even by sources like https://www.consumeraffairs.com/homeowners/average-number-of-smart-devices-in-a-home.html https://www.consumeraffairs.com/homeowners/average-number-of..., around half of all households still have zero, and the average household has only 2.6 people. In this thread (from its root), we have various users defending the reasonableness of the numbers, some providing numbers in their own houses: 10, 11, 14, 17, 19, 23, 28, 34, over 50, 60+. Averaging, I’ll say, about 27, and that’s with two pretty big outliers—if you excluded them (maybe reasonable, maybe not), you’d be down to 19.5. And these sorts of users are already likely to be above-average, it’s the nature of HN, compounded by them being the ones commenting (confirmation bias). Yet already (with the fiddling of removing what I’m calling outliers) they’re under the claimed average. And for each one of them, there’s another household with zero smart home devices; and the 20% of the population with no broadband are, I imagine, effectively using zero wifi devices, though discounting in this way is a little too simplistic. However you look at it, the average will drop quite a bit. In fact, if you return to the original 27 and simplify the portion of the population without smart home devices to a 30% zero rate (mildly arbitrary, but I think reasonable enough as a starting point) and let the other 70% be average… your 27 has dropped to about 19. In order to reach the 21 across the population, you’d need to establish these HN users, defenders of high wifi device counts, to be below average users of wifi devices, which is implausible. If the number was 10, I’d consider it plausible, though honestly I’d still expect the number to be lower. But I think my reasoning backs up my initial feeling that 21 is pretty outlandish for your national average. I’d like to see Deloitte Insights’ methodology; I reckon it’s a furphy. I bet it’s come from some grossly misleading survey data, or from sales figures of devices that are wifi-capable even though half of them never get used that way, or from terrible sampling bias (surveys are notorious for that), or something like that. Wouldn’t be the first wildly wrong or grossly misleading result one of those sorts of companies have published.
tempestn 1y ago
34 devices connected to my router at the moment, 8 wired and 26 wifi. About 8 of the wifi devices are phones, tablets, and laptops; the rest are various iot things: locks, plugs, alarm, thermostat, water heater, doorbell, etc.
seemaze 1y ago
I just checked; I currently have 23, my parent's house has 19 People have all kinds of stuff on wifi these days - cameras, light bulbs, dishwashers, irrigation, solar, hifi..
rdschouw 1y ago
I got 28 online right now according to my Eero. 3 people, with smartphones and laptops. Several game consoles, a few Apple TVs and music streaming devices, Ring camera, Zwave Hub, printer, washing machine, garage opener, Ring doorbell and an assortment of Echo dots.
drob518 1y ago
Yep. And each of your neighbors also has that many devices and you’re all sharing the same channels.
commandersaki 1y ago
I count 14 in a 2 person household, 4 bedroom house; 3 wired.
pixl97 1y ago
I'm probably not average, but I have over 50 wifi devices registered on my UBNT system and 15 wired.
_ea1k 1y ago
It is pretty easy to get there when everyone has a phone, a laptop, and there are a few shared tablets around. Add work + personal machines and it goes up a bit more. Add a few wifi security cameras and other IoT devices and 30+ is probably pretty common.
725686 1y ago
I don't know why I was downvoted. I was just expressing awe at how many wi-fi devices an average US household has. I was not implying the information was wrong.

"The average US household has 21 Wi-Fi devices"... wtf?

by 725686 1y ago

"The average US household has 21 Wi-Fi devices"... wtf?

lynndotpy 1y ago

And that's not to mention everything else on the 2.4GHz band :) Bluetooth, zigbee, your microwave, etc

MrZander 1y ago

That seems very high to me. A family of four each has 5 devices connected at the same time?

paxys 1y ago
Smartphone, laptop, tablet, watch - that's 4 already. And this isn't just counting personal devices. Include TV, streaming stick, game console, printers, bulbs, plugs, speakers, doorbell, security cameras, thermostat and you'll hit that number pretty quick.
- MrZander 1y ago
  There are 16 devices on my WiFi right now and I would've though I was above average. I have a bunch of weird stuff like 3 Raspberry Pis that most households would not have, but I don't have most of the stuff you listed. I guess I am less "connected" than the average American. Can't say I feel like I am missing out, though.
kllrnohj 1y ago
Check your network and see how many wifi devices you have. I'm up to 60+ thanks to a handful of IoT devices, smart speakers, etc... It adds up quick.
drob518 1y ago
Most of your mobile devices are doing background tasks. It’s not typically high bandwidth stuff, but they are connected even when you aren’t using them.
tzs 1y ago
I'm single and have 11 devices on 2.4 GHz: Wireless temperature monitor Sync module for some Blink cameras 2 smart plugs Roomba 5 smart lights RPi 3 3 of the smart lights I currently don't need and and so aren't actually connected. That leaves 8 connected 2.4 GHz devices. On 5 GHz I've got 16 devices: Amazon Fire Stick iPad Printer Echo Show Apple Watch Surface Pro 4 iMac Nintendo Switch EV charger Mac Studio A smart plug Google Home Mini Echo Dot RPi 4 Kindle iPhone The iMac and the Surface Pro 4 are almost never turned on, and the printer is also most of the time. That leaves 13 regularly connected 5 GHz devices. That's a total of 21 devices usually connected on my WiFi, right what the article says is average. :-)

IshKebab 1y ago

Doesn't seem unreasonable. Look at your router. I have 17 and I would say we're a totally normal household - the kids don't even have phones yet. We have 2 phones, a tablet for the kids, a couple of Google homes, a Chromecast, 2 yoto players, a printer, a smart TV, 2 laptops, a raspberry pi, a solar power Inverter, an Oculus Quest, and a couple of things that have random hostnames. It adds up.

isaacdl 1y ago

I live alone, and just counted, I have 10 in regular use. A few more that can connect to WiFi but aren’t (why would I want my tower fans on the internet, anyway?) I had probably 20 prior to swapping out some smart light bulbs and switches for Zigbee. 21 for an average household isn’t nuts.

gnabgib 1y ago

Doesn't take long to add up. Family of 4 - every phone, including prior generation which might be off in a draw: 3-8 Router, and extenders (multi floor house): 1-4 Chromecast|Sonos|Apple speaker/Chromecast|google|firestick|roku|apple TV/smart speaker/hifi receiver/eaves dropping devices: 2-10 Smart doorbell/light switch/temperature sensor/weather station/co2|co detector/flood detector/bulb/led strip/led light/nanoleaf/garage door: 4-16 Some cars: 0-2 Some smart watches speak wifi: 0-4 Computers.. maybe the desktops are wired (likely still support wifi), all laptops, chromebooks, and tablets : 3-8 All game consoles, many TVs, some computer monitors: 3-8 Some smart appliances: 0-4 (based on recent news of ads, best to aim for 0)

chrismorgan 1y ago
The numbers still feel pretty outlandish to me. The biggest factor in your count, and I think it is the one with the highest ceiling, is smart devices. Trouble is, even by sources like https://www.consumeraffairs.com/homeowners/average-number-of-smart-devices-in-a-home.html https://www.consumeraffairs.com/homeowners/average-number-of..., around half of all households still have zero, and the average household has only 2.6 people. In this thread (from its root), we have various users defending the reasonableness of the numbers, some providing numbers in their own houses: 10, 11, 14, 17, 19, 23, 28, 34, over 50, 60+. Averaging, I’ll say, about 27, and that’s with two pretty big outliers—if you excluded them (maybe reasonable, maybe not), you’d be down to 19.5. And these sorts of users are already likely to be above-average, it’s the nature of HN, compounded by them being the ones commenting (confirmation bias). Yet already (with the fiddling of removing what I’m calling outliers) they’re under the claimed average. And for each one of them, there’s another household with zero smart home devices; and the 20% of the population with no broadband are, I imagine, effectively using zero wifi devices, though discounting in this way is a little too simplistic. However you look at it, the average will drop quite a bit. In fact, if you return to the original 27 and simplify the portion of the population without smart home devices to a 30% zero rate (mildly arbitrary, but I think reasonable enough as a starting point) and let the other 70% be average… your 27 has dropped to about 19. In order to reach the 21 across the population, you’d need to establish these HN users, defenders of high wifi device counts, to be below average users of wifi devices, which is implausible. If the number was 10, I’d consider it plausible, though honestly I’d still expect the number to be lower. But I think my reasoning backs up my initial feeling that 21 is pretty outlandish for your national average. I’d like to see Deloitte Insights’ methodology; I reckon it’s a furphy. I bet it’s come from some grossly misleading survey data, or from sales figures of devices that are wifi-capable even though half of them never get used that way, or from terrible sampling bias (surveys are notorious for that), or something like that. Wouldn’t be the first wildly wrong or grossly misleading result one of those sorts of companies have published.

tempestn 1y ago

34 devices connected to my router at the moment, 8 wired and 26 wifi. About 8 of the wifi devices are phones, tablets, and laptops; the rest are various iot things: locks, plugs, alarm, thermostat, water heater, doorbell, etc.

seemaze 1y ago

I just checked; I currently have 23, my parent's house has 19 People have all kinds of stuff on wifi these days - cameras, light bulbs, dishwashers, irrigation, solar, hifi..

rdschouw 1y ago

I got 28 online right now according to my Eero. 3 people, with smartphones and laptops. Several game consoles, a few Apple TVs and music streaming devices, Ring camera, Zwave Hub, printer, washing machine, garage opener, Ring doorbell and an assortment of Echo dots.

drob518 1y ago

Yep. And each of your neighbors also has that many devices and you’re all sharing the same channels.

commandersaki 1y ago

I count 14 in a 2 person household, 4 bedroom house; 3 wired.

pixl97 1y ago

I'm probably not average, but I have over 50 wifi devices registered on my UBNT system and 15 wired.

_ea1k 1y ago

It is pretty easy to get there when everyone has a phone, a laptop, and there are a few shared tablets around. Add work + personal machines and it goes up a bit more. Add a few wifi security cameras and other IoT devices and 30+ is probably pretty common.

725686 1y ago

I don't know why I was downvoted. I was just expressing awe at how many wi-fi devices an average US household has. I was not implying the information was wrong.