How Many Email Users Are There in 2023

Do you use email regularly? According to statistics, you probably do.

Email is one of the first internet services that people started using on a large scale. And to this date, we still do. We use it to apply for jobs, receive bank statements, get notifications from websites, and so many other things.

Let’s take a look at some curious figures about email usage.

History of Email

The history of email spans over 50 years. The first email exchange became possible in the 1960s with the development of time-sharing computers.

Today, we use email not only on our computers but also on our phones. What’s more, we use it a lot more often than people did in the past.

How many daily work-related emails do you think are normal? Here’s what a couple of surveys have to say about this:

1. Surveyed people say up to 50 work-related emails is a normal number

(Harris Interactive)

2. 6% of respondents said that they could handle more than 50

(Intermedia)

Despite the development of new platforms and technologies, email stats show that the method is still widespread for both personal and business use. Let’s look at some facts about the email that back this up. According to Radicati’s report, American workers receive an average of 126 emails per day—quite a few for one person to handle.

How many emails do you write per day? The next stat shows the number of emails the average person sends.

3. The number of emails sent per day by an average worker is 40, while the number of received emails is 90

(Templafy)

People working in HR, marketing, and management send the most emails. They often have to review feedback reports, check schedules, arrange meetings, and so on. Workers may often find it hard to reply to all emails they receive every day.

Have you ever asked yourself, “How many email accounts does the average person have?” The following stats have the answer.

4. On average, people have one email address

(Radicati)

Emailing statistics by the GMA company suggest that people stick to one email address for more than ten years. We use it for a variety of things, such as booking flights, making reservations, or receiving bank statements. But if you ask some people ‘how many email addresses should I have, they may say two—one for personal use and one for work.

Do you know how many emails you receive every day? If you’re not sure, you can look through your inbox and count them. The next part is focused on the stats related to the number of emails exchanged daily. Keep in mind that for many workers sending emails is a big part of their job.

Overall Numbers of Exchanged Emails per Day

The statistics below shows the number of sent and received emails per day:

5. In 2020, the number of emails sent per day was 306.4 billion

(Statista)

The average number of emails per day is huge. It goes to show how vital email is to us in everyday life. A big chunk of email traffic is business-related communication, but personal usage is not far behind. And, according to some email usage statistics, those numbers will go up in the coming years. Radicati predicts that the number of sent and received emails will increase to 347 billion by 2023.

We’ve already established that people have one email address on average. But how many email accounts are there in total?

6. There are almost 5.6 billion email accounts

(Radicati)

As you might expect, the number of people who use email regularly is steadily increasing each year. What’s more, this study looked at accounts that have been used at least once in the last three months. The fact that 5.6 billion active email accounts are in existence is a testament to the technology’s usefulness.

The last figure in this section has to do with the number of email users globally:

7. In 2019, there were 3.9 billion email users. That number is projected to increase to 4.3 billion by 2023

(Radicati)

How many people use email? According to Radicati’s email user statistics, more than half of the world’s population has an email account. That number will undoubtedly increase as more and more people become computer and smartphone savvy.

Most of us receive so much spam every day that we’ve gotten used to it. Many have also learned to recognize questionable emails and addresses, even if our email filters don’t catch them.

In the section below, we’ll focus on stats about spam emails.

Spam Email Statistics

Wondering how many spam emails are sent every day?

8. 14.5 billion spam emails are sent daily

(Spam Laws)

With time and experience, it gets easier and easier to spot spam emails in our inbox. Filters help us a lot, as they flag spam automatically and send it to a dedicated folder or straight to the trash. It’s worth noting that not all emails are promotional. Some may contain viruses that try to hack into our computers and do substantial damage.

What percentage of all exchanged emails is spam?

9. In 2020, almost 53% of all email traffic was spam

(Statista)

Statista’s spam statistics claim that Russia generated 20.74% of all spam emails in 2020. Other email statistics show that China also produces a large volume of spam. According to the data, the US takes third place in this category, with almost 9% of all spam emails.

How many phishing emails are sent a day? Not sure what phishing is? Keep reading to find out.

10. 3.4 billion phishing emails were sent daily in 2019

(Tech Republic)

Phishing is a type of attack that tries to steal personal information from your computer. Phishing emails can only succeed if they manage to go through filters undetected. Those emails keep track of the websites you visit regularly, and if you enter your information, it goes right to the cyber-attacker. They may then be able to access your email accounts, bank accounts, and social network profiles, depending on which ones were breached.

Today, there are countless providers of email services. We’ll focus on the most widely used and the ones that were popular in the past.

Email Popularity by Company

Have you ever changed your email address, or are you sticking to the one you created years ago?

11. Gmail is the most popular email provider with more than 1.8 billion users worldwide, and 43% of the total market

(TechJury)

Gmail is one step ahead of other email providers with unique features, such as a VOIP (Voice to Text) system that makes it easier to compose emails. What’s more, they offer a huge storage space—2.7 GB, so you don’t have to worry about your inbox getting full. One of the things they stand out with, according to Gmail statistics, is the option for companies to have Gmail accounts with their company names after @.

Let’s take a look at some other providers.

12. Yahoo is the second most popular email provider, with 26% of the market. Outlook comes in third, with a 6% market share

(TechJury)

If you were born in the 80s or earlier, perhaps your first email provider was AOL (America Online), which started operating in 1993. According to email statistics, with the emergence of other providers like Hotmail and Yahoo, AOL’s popularity began to decrease over the years.

If a big part of your job is to send many emails, the next part is for you. We answer the question, “How many emails can you send through Gmail?”

13. Gmail has a limit per day—one person can send one email to 2000 recipients at once, or four emails to 500 recipients

(Google)

Whether you send emails via a computer or smartphone, the limit is the same. In case you reach the maximum number of sent emails, you’ll have to wait exactly 24 hours to be able to send more. In some cases, you may be able to restore your access by contacting administrators. It’s worth pointing out that auto-forwarded emails don’t count towards the daily limit.

In the next part, we’ll focus on the business side of things and how different companies use email.

B2B vs B2C Email Metrics

What percentage of small and medium-sized businesses use email?

14. In 2018, 81% of small and medium-sized businesses (SMB) used email as their primary customer acquisition channel

(Emarsys)

15. 80% of SMBs relied on email as a way of customer retention in 2018

(Emarsys)

In the last decade, social networks have become essential for every business. Brands strive for as many shares and likes as possible so they can reach more people. But email remains a crucial communication channel. With so many email users, email marketing has a better chance of reaching people than social networks.

Let’s compare the return on investment (ROI) for B2B companies using email to that of B2C companies.

16. Email is the most cost-effective marketing channel for B2B businesses, with 40:1 ROI

(Direct Marketing Association)

17. B2C marketers who focus on email marketing have an 89% higher contribution to their business’s revenue

(Campaign Monitor)

Email marketing’s power lies in cultivating solid relationships with customers and caring for them. It can be used to develop trust, brand awareness, and increase lead generation, among other things. Email marketing can also increase sales, build loyalty, and keep customers informed about current offerings. What’s more, according to business email statistics by Message Systems, 63% of marketers say that email marketing contributes the most to their company’s revenue.

Let’s take a look at the numbers for B2B and B2C email open rates.

18. In 2019, the email open rate for B2C companies was 19.7%, while B2B email open rate was 15.1%

(DMA)

A possible reason for the lower B2B email usage is that B2B companies target employees of other businesses, who may be busier and less likely to pay attention to promotional emails. That’s why it’s of the utmost importance for marketers to write appealing subject lines if they want to grab their clients’ attention. It’s best to use short, personalized, and direct messages.

What kind of novelties should marketers incorporate in their practice? Will email remain as popular in the future? We’ll answer these questions in the next section.

Email Usage Trends and Growth Statistics

• Adding videos to emails can boost the click-through rate by 300 percent (Martech Advisor)
• Dividing contacts into similar categories according to their activity and demographics enables marketers to send more relevant messages. (Smart Insight)
• Reviewing the campaign to see what worked in the past and what didn’t provide the opportunity to optimize emails.
• Email usage is expected to grow two to three percent each year from 2018 to 2023. (Statista)

To recap…

Thanks to a large number of users, email has the best chance of reaching people.

However, the open rate of emails depends a lot on how appealing marketers’ subject lines are.

Due to the necessity of email, it’s unlikely to become outdated any time soon. There are plenty of effective ways to use it, and as we’ve seen, the number of email users increases each year.

What’s more, technology is constantly improving, so who knows what other email innovations await us.