WhatsApp 2023 User Statistics: How Many People Use WhatsApp?

WhatsApp 2023 User Statistics: How Many People Use WhatsApp?

Brian Dean

by Brian Dean · Updated Mar. 27, 2023

WhatsApp User Statistics: How Many People Use WhatsApp?

WhatsApp was officially launched in November 2009 as a chat app service for iOS.

In August 2010, WhatsApp released an app for Android users. After that, it only took 4 years for the messenger app to hit a milestone of 200 million monthly active users.

Thanks to WhatsApp’s growing popularity, Facebook acquired WhatsApp in 2014 for $19 billion, more than 12x higher than WhatsApp’s valuation from the previous year.

Today, WhatsApp is reported to have more than 2 billion monthly active users globally. And is ranked among the most popular mobile messenger apps in the world.

Read on to see all of the key WhatsApp statistics in 2023.

Here’s a quick breakdown of what we’ll cover:

Key Stats About Whatsapp

  • WhatsApp has 2 billion active users worldwide.
  • WhatsApp is ranked as the most used mobile messenger app in the world.
  • More than 100 billion messages are sent each day on WhatsApp.
  • The average WhatsApp user on Android spends 38 minutes per day on the app.
  • India has the most WhatsApp monthly active users (390.1 million).

WhatsApp monthly active users

According to the latest Facebook figures, WhatsApp has more than 2 billion users.

WhatsApp has more than 2 billion users

WhatsApp has added 1 billion new users over the last 4 years (2016-2020).

During the 6 years that Whatsapp has operated as a Facebook subsidiary, the messenger’s monthly active user base has increased by 365%, from 465 million in February 2014.

WhatsApp user growth

Here’s a table of WhatsApp user growth since 2010:

Date Number of monthly active users
October 2010 10 million
December 2011 50 million
July 2012 75 million
October 2012 100 million
January 2013 133 million
March 2013 166 million
April 2013 200 million
June 2013 250 million
August 2013 300 million
October 2013 350 million
December 2013 400 million
January 2014 430 million
February 2014 465 million
April 2014 500 million
August 2014 600 million
January 2015 700 million
April 2015 800 million
September 2015 900 million
February 2016 1 billion
January 2017 1.2 billion
July 2017 1.3 billion
December 2017 1.5 billion
February 2020 2 billion
July 2021 2 billion

Sources: Business Insider, Statista, Facebook

Number of WhatsApp messages sent globally per day

According to a December 2020 tweet from Will Cathcart (Head of WhatsApp), more than 100 billion messages are sent each day on WhatsApp.

In fact, the number of messages sent via WhatsApp has increased by 53.84% since 2018.

Number of WhatsApp messages sent globally per day

We’ve charted the growth of the number of messages sent daily on WhatsApp since 2011:

Date Number of messages sent per day on WhatsApp
October 2011 1 billion
January 2015 30 billion
February 2016 42 billion
July 2017 55 billion
May 2018 65 billion
October 2020 100 billion
December 2020 100+ billion

Sources: Statista, VentureBeat, Fortune, Twitter

Time spent with WhatsApp

According to App Annie data, the average WhatsApp user on the Android platform spends 19.4 hours per month (38 minutes per day) on the app.

Source: Hootsuite

WhatsApp usage frequency in the US

Based on AudienceProject data, 50% of American WhatsApp users access the messenger service daily. An additional 28% use WhatsApp at least once a week, which brings the total to 78% of American WhatsApp users accessing the app weekly.

78% of American WhatsApp users accessing the app weekly

Here’s the breakdown of WhatsApp usage among American users as of Q3 2020:

Frequency usage Share of users
Daily 50%
Weekly 78%
Monthly 91%

Source: AudienceProject

WhatsApp reach by age group in the US

WhatsApp is most popular among American internet users aged between 26-35. In fact, 27% of all Americans online between 26-35 years old use WhatsApp.

27% of all Americans online between 26-35 years old use WhatsApp

Here’s the complete breakdown of the percentage of US internet users who use WhatsApp by age group:

Age group WhatsApp usage among US internet users
15-25 years 19%
26-35 years 27%
36-45 years 20%
46-55 years 17%
56+ years 13%

Source: Statista

WhatsApp gender demographics

Based on GlobalWebIndex data, the WhatsApp worldwide user base consists of 46.1% female users. The remaining 53.9% are male.

Source: Hootsuite

Top 10 WhatsApp countries ranked by largest audiences

According to eMarketer, India has more WhatsApp users than any other country, with 390.1 million monthly active users.

The combined user base located in the top 3 WhatsApp countries exceeds half a billion, with 573.6 million monthly active users based in India, Brazil, and the US.

Top 10 WhatsApp countries ranked by largest audiences

Here’s the table of the ten countries where WhatsApp is the most popular, ranked by the number of monthly users:

Country Number of WhatsApp Users
India 390.1 million
Brazil 108.4 million
United States 75.1 million
Indonesia 68.8 million
Russia 64.7 million
Mexico 62.3 million
Germany 48.3 million
Italy 35.5 million
Spain 33.0 million
UK 30.1 million

Source: Business Insider

Top 10 fastest-growing WhatsApp markets (% change)

With 17% growth, Russia’s WhatsApp monthly active user base has grown the most quickly over the last year.

Other growing markets for WhatsApp in 2020 include: India (+16.6%), France (+16.6%), Indonesia (+15.1%).

WhatsApp’s mobile monthly active user base has grown by 10% or more in 6 countries in 2020.

The 4 countries with the largest WhatsApp user base (India, Brazil, the US and Indonesia) added a combined 75.4 million new monthly active users last year (between August 2019 and August 2020).

Here’s the table of countries with the highest rate of WhatsApp user growth:

Country % Change
Russia 17.0%
India 16.6%
France 16.6%
Indonesia 15.1%
US 10.0%
Argentina 10.0%
Brazil 9.1%
Italy 7.7%
Finland 7.5%
Austria 7.3%

Source: Business Insider, eMarketer

WhatsApp number of downloads

According to AppFigures, WhatsApp Messenger was downloaded 39 million times in August 2021 alone. Most downloads came from Google Play (with 29 million installs), while another 10 million downloads came from the App Store.

Worldwide, WhatsApp was the 4th most downloaded app in September 2021 (behind TikTok, Facebook, Instagram).

Source: Appfigures, SensorTower

WhatsApp application ratings

The WhatsApp application has over 146 million ratings on the Android platform, with an average score of 4.1.

Here’s the full rating breakdown of Whatsapp ratings on Android:

Rating Number of Ratings
1 star 21,112,163
2 star 5,269,290
3 star 8,556,992
4 star 14,668,467
5 star 97,277,177

On iOS, the WhatsApp mobile application has over 9 million ratings, with an average score of 4.8.

Here’s the full rating breakdown for WhatsApp on iOS:

Rating Number of Ratings
1 star 264,026
2 star 114,077
3 star 294,084
4 star 791,738
5 star 7,619,636

Source: Sensor Tower

WhatsApp Business number of downloads

WhatsApp has a dedicated app, WhatsApp Business, for managing business profiles and staying in touch with customers.

Based on estimates from Sensor Tower, WhatsApp Business was downloaded 18 million times across Google Play & App Store in September 2021. The vast majority, 16 million downloads, came from Android users. The remaining 2 million installs came from iOS users.

Source: Sensor Tower.

Number of users interacting with business profiles on WhatsApp

According to WhatsApp head Will Cathcart, approximately 175 million people send messages to business accounts on WhatsApp every day.

Source: Twitter

Conclusion

That’s my list of WhatsApp statistics for 2021. The messenger app was already quite popular as an independent business. And has grown significantly under Facebook, becoming the most popular mobile messaging app on the planet.

Hopefully, you found these growth and user stats interesting.

Now I’d like to hear from you:

Do you think WhatsApp will keep its top status despite privacy concerns? Or do you have questions about the data in this stats roundup?

Whatever it is, please feel free to leave a comment below.

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