The digital divide may be shrinking, but a new study has found that a significant number of consumers still aren’t emailing or searching the internet on a regular basis.

One out of every five heads of household in the U.S. has never used email or found a website on the internet, while one in three has never used a computer to create a document, according to a survey by Parks Associates.

Meanwhile, 18 percent of U.S. households, or 20 million people, are still without internet access, and only 7 percent of those homes plan to subscribe to an ISP in the next year.

"These data underscore the significant digital divide between the connected majority and the homes in the unconnected minority that rarely, if ever, use a computer," said John Barrett, director of research at Parks Associates.

Age plays a factor in the results; half of those who have never used email are over 65 years old.

While the results are staggering, the number of disconnected households is down since 2006, when 29 percent of U.S. homes, or 31 million, did not have internet access.