We’ve come a long way since 1971 when the first email was sent. Today, we receive dozens, or even hundreds of emails every day barely noticing the convenience that email has brought into our business and personal lives alike. We’ve prepared some fascinating mobile email statistics that not only show how much reading emails on the go has already affected the way we communicate, but how important it will remain as we enter the new decade.
Mobile Email Statistics (Editor’s Choice)
- Over 376.4 billion emails will be sent and received per day by 2025. (Statista)
- There are about 6.64 billion unique mobile Internet users worldwide, representing around 83.72% of the global population. (BankMyCell)
- Checking email is what 58% of adults do first thing in the morning. (OptinMonster)
- There are more than 1.8 billion Gmail accounts. (Findstack)
- 85% of users use smartphones to access email. (Adobe)
- Mobile accounted for 42% of all email opens in 2019. (Litmus)
- The ratio between received and sent emails is 3:1. (Radicati)
- 47% of consumers use a mobile application for checking their email. (Campaign Monitor)
Email Usage Stats
1. Over 376.4 billion emails will be sent and received per day by 2025.
In 2017, 269 billion emails were delivered and received per day worldwide. With the volume of emails received daily having climbed to 281.1 billion in 2018. This year around the number of emails that are floating around is 333.2 billion.
This development is greatly supported by the general population’s increased use of smartphones. Estimates show that around 90% of global internet users, or around 4.32 billion people, use a mobile device to go online.own a smartphone.
(Statista)
2. Mobile email statistics reveal that there are about 6.64 billion smartphone users worldwide, or around 83.72% of the global population.
If we take feature phones into account as well, the number of mobile phone owners is 7.26 billion, which makes 91.54% of the global population. Professionals forecast that the amount of smartphones will expand to 7.69 billion users by 2027.
The tendency for people to have more than one email account is one factor that boosts the overall email usage percentage. Recent mobile email usage statistics estimate that the number of active email accounts per person should have already reached 1.9. Check out our article on the number of email users for more information.
(Statista, BankMyCell, Radicati)
3. Email had a 90.9% market penetration rate in the US in 2019.
Reports also suggest that 89% of Americans look at their email at least once a day, with 27.6% checking their inbox up to five times a day, 20.9% check their inbox more than five times a day. This high of a penetration rate is very beneficial for email marketing firms.
(Statista, Eleventy Marketing Group)
4. Government-related emails are the most commonly opened, with a 28.77% open rate.
Mobile email open rates, however, also indicate that emails in the hobbies section have the strongest click rates, at 5.01%, compared to just under 4% for government emails. Creativity from the arts and artists also gets support, with an open rate of 26.27%. Religious services are also commonly opened, at 27.62%. Emails in the non-profit category are opened in 25.17% of the cases, and sports events-related ones follow, with an open rate of 24.57%. The average for all sectors is 21.33%.
(Mail Chimp)
5. Checking email is what 58% of adults do first thing in the morning.
Data on email opens on mobile devices reveals that 58% of individuals check their emails first thing in the morning, compared to 14% who check social media first. Research suggests that those with a habit of checking their emails before their day starts are considered more task-oriented and more likely to have a unique goal in mind with online communications.
(OptinMonster)
6. Email reaches about 85% of the people.
Email open rates on mobile show that email remains the most useful channel for getting to people. The average open rate of email is approximately 23%, while its CTR is 3.71%. If you think social media delivers better results, you’d be wrong. Recent data finds that Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter have an engagement percentage of merely 0.6%. Our mobile marketing stats have more info on this.
(OptinMonster)
7. The average person received around 96 emails per day in 2019.
Mobile email stats report that users now send/receive 126 emails per day. This means that users receive an average of 45,990 emails each year, 5.25 emails per hour, or approximately 1 email every 12 minutes.
(Radicati)
8. Gen X consumers account for 92% of all email users.
Millennials are right behind Gen Xers, with 89% of them emailing, while Gen Z make up the third-largest group, with 85% using the service. Mobile email trends find that 40% of users from all age groups expressed that email is both an essential and fundamental communication form in their lives. Overall, if we review the data on email usage by age, there are no major fluctuations; users from all age groups use email relatively equally.
(MarketingProfs)
9. Gmail has a market share of 26.5%.
Gmail and Apple are the two most favored solutions for reading emails. Together, they account for 87.16% of the email client market share. Data from March 2022 shows that Apple accounts for 60.66% of all email opens, followed by Gmail with 26.5%.
Outlook is the next most commonly used email solution, with 4.09% of all opens, followed by Yahoo! Mail and Google Android with 3.33% and 1.68%, respectively, to round out the top 5.
(Litmus)
10. Email client statistics show that there are more than 1.8 billion Gmail accounts.
Google Mail had 350 million active accounts in 2012. Just six months later, that number increased to 425 million accounts. In 2015, the figure of active Gmail accounts went up to 900 million, and reached the one-billion mark ten months later. By the end of 2018, Gmail had reached 1.5 billion accounts.
(Statista, Findstack)
Mobile Email Statistics
11. 85% of users use smartphones to access email.
Smartphones have turned into the main device for checking email for 85% of users. For those aged 25-34, that rate is even higher, at 90%. Using smartphones for checking email has become more popular since 2017 when 81% of users reported accessing their email from these devices.
Using desktop and laptop computers for checking emails is going down year-over-year; 69% of users reported checking their email via desktop and laptop in 2018, compared to 74% last year.
(Adobe, Emailmonday)
12. Mobile accounted for 42% of all email opens in 2019.
Email opens on mobile devices are slowly taking over, with data showing that this remained the most popular reading environment last year. Its 42 percent, however, mark a slight increase from 2018’s 41.4%.
(Litmus)
13. In the next 4 years, around 60 billion junk emails will be sent out every day.
Despite a global improvement, spam continues to be a major pain for email users. Those who use email on mobile devices also struggle with the issue of spam; more than half of them still consider junk emails to be a significant headache.
(Spam Laws)
14. Around 12% of all spam emails are sent from China.
In 2018, China accounted for 11.69% of all spam messages, beating the US, which had previously been in the lead. The rate of spam emails sent from the US stood at 9.04%, and Germany held third place with 7.17%.
In contrast, the countries with the smallest spam email contributions were Romania (1.10%), Colombia (1.12%), and the Netherlands (1.37%).
(Secure List)
15. According to mobile usage statistics, 70% of mobile email users delete badly formatted messages in under three seconds.
Other difficulties for email users on mobile devices are high-frequency emails, unimportant messages, layouts that make unpleasant communications, and click-throughs that get them to sites that aren’t optimized for mobile. A small rate of users was put off because they expect that brands should reach out via an app instead (9%) or because the email content duplicates what’s already in the app.
(Email Marketing Secrets, Emailmonday)
16. Mobile phones are used as emailing devices by 1.7 billion people.
With so many people using their phones for email access, It’s no wonder that the number of emails opened on mobile devices now accounts for 60% of the overall email engagement. However, what might come as a shock is how this figure varies depending on the industry.
IBM’s 2018 Marketing Benchmark Report discovered that mobile readership reaches as much as 60% for the “Leisure, Sports & Recreation” industries and is as low as 38.2% for “Schools & Education”.
(Emailmonday, EasySendy)
17. $1 billion in sales came from emails on mobile, holding the first position with a 4.29% conversion rate.
On mobile devices, email conversion rates outperformed other channels in a study of Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales on Shopify. This result isn’t surprising since subscriber lists consist of users who are already customers or primed prospects that already have greater conversion capability.
(Forbes)
18. Mobile devices are used by 59% of email users to check personal emails.
Email users aged 18 to 24 are the most likely to check their email while they’re on the go. According to the most recent statistics on emailing devices, in 2018, users in the US favored checking their personal emails primarily at home. In contrast, just 23% reported they access their private inboxes at work.
(Emailmonday)
19. 333.2 billion emails are sent and received every day.
Despite all other digital channels, email is the leader of communication. The number of emails sent daily is projected to reach 347.3 billion in 2023. By 2025, the growth is projected to reach 376.4 billion emails sent around the world every day, a figure that was inconceivable back in 1971 when email was invented.
(Statista)
20. Desktop and mobile device statistics indicate that the ratio between received and sent emails is 3:1.
In 2015, email consumers with a business email account received an average of 88 emails per day. By the end of 2019, that amount had climbed to 96.
While the amount of emails that appear in a user’s inbox is steadily growing, the amount of sent emails may continue to go down. While the overall number of emails sent per day is growing, as listed in the previous stat, the number of emails an individual sends on average fell from 34 to 30 emails between 2015 and 2019.
(Radicati)
Desktop and Mobile Email Facts
21. 73% of email users rely on the “unsubscribe” link to get rid of unwanted emails.
Unwanted emails can be really frustrating and users are most likely to use the unsubscribe link once they no longer want to receive such emails. In fact, almost 11% of users delete unwanted emails each time they enter their inbox, while 6.2% of email users click the spam button when they get such emails, and 5.9% of users just ignore unwanted emails.
(Adestra)
22. Portable email devices take up 16% of the average workweek.
68% of workers prefer checking their work-related emails on their laptop or desktop computers. Those aged 18-34, however, prefer using their smartphones. 2% of those surveyed prefer reading their emails using a smartwatch.
In terms of workplace productivity,16% of employees’ weekly work hours are used on email-assigned tasks.
(Work Front, Xink)
23. 55% of office workers manage to keep their inboxes empty.
The amount of emails employees send and receive annually sits at around 45,990, according to the latest email usage stats. Yet, more than half of them are successful in coming to an inbox of zero. The rate of those who maintained their inboxes to be empty at all times was five points less in 2017. Unsurprisingly, the most typical attitude to maintaining this target is relief (39%).
(Adobe, Radicati)
24. Email communication with brands is the preferred method for 50% of consumers.
Other communication channels trail far behind email, with direct mail being the most prominent communication choice for 20% of consumers, social media channels is the choice for 7%, and phone call is the main choice for 7%. Additionally, a brand’s mobile app is the primary choice for 7% of consumers, mobile and tablet usage statistics find. The least favorite communication method is chatbots, and it is the preferred choice for just 3% of consumers.
While email is viewed as the top-runner among techniques of communication between brands and users, the overall rate of individuals who choose email has declined to 50% in 2018.
Here are some more email marketing statistics for those interested in this topic.
(Adobe)
25. 47% of consumers use a mobile application for checking their email.
There are still 26.9% that prefer desktop to open and respond to emails, mobile vs desktop email opens data suggests. 21% of consumers prefer to open and respond to emails on their tablets, while 81% would rather use their smartphones. Younger generations, such as millennials and Generation Z, are more likely to use smartphones, while older groups prefer tablets.
In 2019, the number of emails opened on mobile devices was 41.9%, while desktop opens accounted for just 18.2%.
With the bulk of mobile email opens happening on iOS devices, the percentage of iPhone-driven email opens was the highest, at 28.4%, while for PC, that number was at 18.2%.
(Campaign Monitor, Litmus)
Conclusion
The advancements in mobile technology have affected us and our lives in many ways, most importantly, the way we communicate. The mobile email statistics listed above demonstrate how this communication technology has evolved into a significant part of people’s lifestyles. Consumers now use mobile devices for more than half of their emails, while desktop use has declined, showing once again that mobile is the future.
