Rob Barletta, president of New England Facility Management Group, works in his office at the Cranston Veterans’ Rink. He was on the Internet searching for youth hockey teams that might be interested in using the rink.

The Providence Journal / Glenn Osmundson

Nearly three out of four Rhode Islanders have access to the Internet at home, according to a recently released survey by the U.S. Census Bureau.

The survey estimates that 73 percent of Rhode Island residents live in a household with Internet access. That ranks the state ahead of the national average of 67.1 percent and places Rhode Island in 11th place in the country, but it still lags behind all but one other state in New England.

The percentage was lower for the number of Rhode Island residents who actually use the Internet, according to the study conducted in 2007. The Census Bureau found that 64.9 percent of Rhode Islanders used the Internet either at home or somewhere else, a rate just ahead of the national average of 62.4 percent but still last among the six New England states.

Ruby Roy Dholakia, professor of marketing at the University of Rhode Island’s College of Business Administration, said Rhode Island may place high in access to the Internet because of the state’s small size. Rhode Island has broadband and fiber-optic infrastructure that larger, more rural states to the west do not.

“Rhode Island is a very compact state,” said Dholakia, who is writing a book about how America is being transformed by technology. “If you look at a place like Wyoming, building the infrastructure is much more difficult. The infrastructure is easier in Rhode Island.”

She compared the relative ease of expanding infrastructure in the Ocean State with certain small countries where access to the Internet is extremely high.

“Look at the Netherlands, which has a percentage in the 90s, or Singapore,” Dholakia said.

Those countries demonstrate that Rhode Island and even a state such as New Hampshire, where nearly 83 percent of residents can use the Internet at home — the highest rate in the country — still have a long way to go, she said.

Rhode Island has already seen steady increases since the federal government started keeping track of the numbers. In 2003, 55.7 percent of residents had the Internet at home. In 2001, the rate was 52.8 percent

Dholakia said that in general Internet access is not only connected to location but also to education level. The Census Bureau found that 87 percent of Americans with bachelor’s degrees or higher used the Internet, while 49 percent of people with only a high school degree did so. The number dropped to 19 percent for those who didn’t finish high school.

Dholakia said she expects the numbers in Rhode Island and the rest of the country to keep climbing, although she said the recession may temper that increase.

“With the high rate of unemployment and people being forced to cut down on their expenses, I wonder if they’re cutting off Internet access, saying, ‘That’s a luxury I cannot afford,’ ” she said.Percentage of individuals who access the Internet at home or somewhere else:

New Hampshire, 74.6 percent

Maine, 68.2 percent

Vermont, 68 percent

Massachusetts, 67.9 percent

Connecticut, 67.6 percent

Rhode Island, 64.9 percentPercentage of individuals who live in a home with Internet access:

New Hampshire, 82.6 percent

Massachusetts, 76.3 percent

Vermont, 75.2 percent

Connecticut, 74.5 percent

Rhode Island, 73 percent

Maine, 72.7 percent

akuffner@projo.com