I had a request from one of our staff to change the forms to not require the email address because a single person (out of probably 1000 applicants) cannot submit the form because, apparently, that single person does not have an email address.
Is it safe to assume that everyone has an email address now?
Answer
I don't believe the question as posed is the correct way of thinking about the issue. Rather than asking if everybody has an email address now, (and the answer is self evidently no), the question you should consider is:
Do you require an email address?
If your form is for a service in which communication (invoices, receipts etc) will be emailed to people, then by definition an email address is required, so it is reasonable to require it.
If your service does not require an email address to work; the customer can receive physical mail, SMS messages or simply does not need to receive communication other than within the service, then don't force the customer to enter an email address. You can ask and supply hints like
'you have not entered an email address; please note that we won't be able to XYZ you'
Even if everybody in the world did have an email address, people may choose not to supply one if they feel that it is not required for your company or service. You have to accept that, or people will just supply dummy address information anyway.
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