clipped from: www.marketingcharts.com   

Vlingo’s second annual Consumer Mobile Messaging Habits Report reveals that drivers in Tennessee are the worst offenders, with 42% of respondents from that state admitting to DWT. Arizona has the lowest percentage (18.8%), the study found.

Not surprisingly, the propensity for DWT varies by age. Almost 60% of the US’s youngest drivers (ages 16 – 19) admit to DWT as do 49% of those ages 20-29, Vlingo said.  The percentages get lower for older respondents (as do the percentages for texting in general), but 13% of people in their 50s still admit to DWT.

  • In 2008, 85% of teens and 20-somethings used texting.
  • In 2009, 94% of teens and 87% of 20-somethings used texting.
  • Among those in their 40s, usage jumped from 56% to 64.
  • For those in their 50s use of texting jumped from 38% to 46%.
    • more than one-fourth (26%) of US mobile-phone users send and/or receive text messages while behind the wheel, finds a study from Vlingo