Landline phones aren’t going the way of the dodo in Massachusetts. At least anytime soon, it seems.
While wide swaths of the country have left landline phones behind — now regarded as ancient relics by today’s youth, much like pagers or floppy disks (sorry, parents) — people in the Bay State remain loyal to theirs, a new study has found.
More than half of Massachusetts residents still have a landline in their homes, according to a study published this week by ChamberofCommerce.org, a website that caters to business owners and local professionals. Only New York has a higher percentage, and by the slightest of margins — 52.4 percent to 52.1 percent.
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Nationally, nearly 72 percent of adults rely solely on wireless phones, according to the study, placing Massachusetts, where about 48 percent of residents use only wireless, squarely in the minority.
About one in four adults use both a wireless and landline phone, while only 1.3 percent use a landline only.
The analysis used data from sources that included the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey and the National Center for Health Statistics. The estimates are from 2022, the latest available.
While the landline — first put to use by Alexander Graham Bell in his Boston laboratory in 1876 — has faded in popularity, New England has been slower to cut the cord.
More than 4 in 10 adults in the Northeast still have a landline in their home, more than any other region in the country, the analysis found. In contrast, more than 75 percent of residents in Idaho, Oklahoma, Wyoming, New Mexico, and Mississippi do not have a landline.
“Between 2014 to 2016, the trend of wireless communications spread rapidly across the South and Midwest, causing a significant decline in landline demand nationally,” the study said.
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During a widespread AT&T outage in February that caused cellular coverage to go down for hours, the Globe reported about the affinity adults have in the Northeast for landlines. Their reasons ranged from the sentimental to concerns about safety.
From Weston to Mashpee to Lenox, residents across Massachusetts have complained about poor wireless service coverage, and landline phones are still seen as the “most reliable method of communication” during an emergency, such as when a storm knocks out power, according to the AARP.
Older Americans are the most likely group to use landlines, according to the study, with half of those 65 and up having one in their home. Those in the 30-34 age bracket are the least likely to have a landline phone, with more than 88 percent favoring the wireless lifestyle.
Other states that had a high percentage of adults with landlines included Maryland (50.8 percent), New Jersey (50.5 percent), New Hampshire (49.5 percent), Vermont (47.9), Pennsylvania (47.7 percent), Connecticut (47.7 percent), Delaware (46.1 percent), and Rhode Island (45.5 percent), the analysis found.
Even in the Northeast, however, “landline usage is declining steadily,” the study found. While 58 percent of households were without a landline in 2010, that number jumped to almost 79 percent in 2022.
But for now, Massachusetts residents still have a firm grip on the tried-and-true landline.
Shannon Larson can be reached at shannon.larson@globe.com. Follow her @shannonlarson98.