| Last updated: October 2023

Email facts

There are over 4.371 billion email users. This figure is predicted to reach 4.730 billion by 2026 which is a growth of more than 4% yearly. - Radicati Group (2022)

There are 4.371 billion email users worldwide who send and receive 333 billion emails per day. - Radicatti Group (2022)

961.697 legitimate emails are sent every second, making 3.462.108.804‬ legitimate emails per hour. - Internetlivestats (2023)

The number of email users is still growing. 73% of EU individuals aged 16 to 78 use internet to send / receive emails in 2018. Compare this to only 48% in 2007. – Eurostat “Individuals using the internet for sending/receiving e-mails” (2021)

People prefer email for commercial communications

96% of consumers check their email every day. - DMA Consumer Tracker (2021)

81% of US online shoppers are more likely to make additional purchases, either online or in a store, as a result of emails based on previous shopping behaviors and preferences. - Harris Interactive

More than 60% of customers (those 25 or older in particular) would prefer to be contacted by brands via email. Adobe “Email Use 2017 – US Report“ (2018)


Over 70% of Consumers believe email is the best channel for company contact, preferring it almost twice as much as any other channel: 46% compared to 26% for post, and 24% for text or face-to-face. DMA Consumer Tracker (2021)

Email is the most popular place to save important information from brands over half of consumers (56%) currently use their inbox in this way. DMA Consumer Tracker (2021)

86% of professionals prefer to use email when communicating for business purposes. (HubSpot, 2017)

73% of consumers say email is their preferred marketing channel 73% of consumers named email in their top two (out of eight) in terms of preference. DMA “Acquisition and the consumer mindset 2018” (2018)

83% of consumers say email is one of their preferred methods brand communication, with Facebook as far second with 38%, postal mail 27%.Email Addiction study, EmailMonday

70% of consumers find email to be their #1 preferred channel for recieving commercial messages - CG Selections "Nationaal Email Onderzoek" (2017)

35% of consumers estimate they open 75% or more of all the marketing mails they receive. 14% of consumers open all their emails. – DMA “consumer email tracker” (2017).

66% of consumers have made a purchase online as a direct result of an email marketing message - Direct Marketing Association (2013)

One in five (19%) of consumers said they read every email newsletter they receive just to see if something’s on offer. - Forrester Research "North american technographics survey" (2014)

In 2014 consumers delete less promo emails without looking, down 25,4% relative to 2010. - Forrester Research "North american technographics survey" (2014)

More users ages 12–17 are using email than are using either Snapchat or Facebook. Even as monthly Snapchat usage among 12–17-year-olds jumped from 39% in 2014 to 67% in 2017, email adoption grew from 69% to 82% over the same period. - Forrester Analytics "Email Marketing Forecast, 2018 To 2023" (2019)

Email is mobile

email stats

Mobile email will account for 24 to 77% of email opens, depending on your target audience, product and email type. - eMailmonday “the Ultimate mobile email stats” (2023)

More email is read on Mobile than on desktop email clients. 61.9% of email opens occurred on mobile, 9.8% on desktop and 28.3% in a webmail client. – Adestra “Top 10 email clients” (2019)

Mobile clients account for 41.9% of email opens during Q1 2019, followed by webmail opens at 39,9% and desktop opens at 18,2% – Litmus “The 2019 Email Client Market Share” (2019)

More useful mobile email marketing statistics here.

Email marketing is The Hot New Channel, according to the Wall Street Journal. Here is the ten year challenge to prove it:

And email marketing?

87% of B2B content marketers use email marketing for lead nurturing - CMI "B2B Content Marketing Research" (2019)

78% of marketers have seen an increase in email engagement over the last 12 months - Hubspot "State of Marketing" (2020) 35% of marketers send their customers 3-5 emails per week. - Hubspot "State of Marketing" (2020)

61% of companies generate more than 10 percent of sales from email - Econsultancy "Emailmarketing census"(2018)

Marketers consistently ranked email as the single-most-effective tactic for awareness, acquisition, conversion, and retention. - Gigaom Research "Workhorses and dark horses: digital tactics for customer acquisition"

The worldwide market for email marketing will reach US $22.16 Bn in 2025. The industry has an expected annual growth rate of 19.60%. - Transparency market research “Email Marketing Global Industry Analysis” (2017)

Email is almost 40x better at acquiring new customers than Facebook and Twitter - McKinsey & Company

DMA research puts the ROI of email marketing in 2018 at US$ 32.28, better than any other direct marketing channel and up from 30.03 the year before. - DMA UK "Marketer email tracker 2018" (2018).

Email Marketing is the biggest marketing channel on Black Friday, driving 28% of revenue. Email marketing was the biggest in sales on Black Friday. While sometimes behind online search (free and paid), on Black Friday email marketing was the primary channel. - Ometria (2017)

75% of marketeers say emailmarketing is bringing them a good to excellent ROI. - Econsultancy "Emailmarketing census"(2018)

... but why not calculate your own email marketing ROI

Useful reading

Media hype often leads to "email is dead" headlines, followed by praise for whichever new technology killed email this time.

Numerous authors have addressed this issue of email's longevity and use. Here a selection:

"Email is not dead because people want to write to one another, using their email accounts, in more than 140-character bursts," - Neil Schwartzman, Executive Director, CAUCE

"Email is not going to disappear. Possibly ever. Until the robots kill us all," says Paul Buchheit, a founder of FriendFeed

The Historical email alive archives

People who predicted email wasn't dead a long time ago.