WhatsApp User Statistics: How Many People Use WhatsApp?
Written by Backlinko Team
WhatsApp was officially launched in November 2009 as a chat app service, initially just for iOS.
In August 2010, WhatsApp released an app for Android users. It took 4 years for the messenger app to hit a milestone of 200 million monthly active users.
With growing popularity, Facebook acquired WhatsApp in 2014 for $19 billion, more than 12 times higher than WhatsApp’s valuation from the previous year.
Today, WhatsApp is reported to have more than 2 billion monthly active users globally, including 100 million in the US, and is ranked as the most popular mobile messenger app in the world.
Read on to see all of the key WhatsApp statistics you need to know in 2024.
Here’s a quick breakdown of what we’ll cover:
- Key Stats About WhatsApp (Top Picks)
- WhatsApp Monthly Active Users Worldwide
- WhatsApp Monthly Active Users in the US
- Number of WhatsApp Messages Sent Globally per Day
- Number of Voice WhatsApp Messages Sent Globally per Day
- Average Time Spent With WhatsApp
- WhatsApp Demographics by Generation in the US
- WhatsApp Reach by Age Group in the US
- WhatsApp Gender Demographics
- Top 10 WhatsApp Countries Ranked by Largest Audiences
- WhatsApp Number of Downloads
- WhatsApp Application Ratings
- WhatsApp Business Number of Downloads
- WhatsApp Business Monthly Active Users
Key Stats About WhatsApp (Top Picks)
- WhatsApp has over 2 billion monthly active users worldwide.
- WhatsApp has 100 million monthly active users in the US.
- WhatsApp is ranked as the most used mobile messenger app in the world.
- More than 596.6 million messages are sent each day on WhatsApp.
- More than 596.6 million voice messages are sent daily on WhatsApp.
- India has the most WhatsApp monthly active users (596.6 million as of 2024).
WhatsApp Monthly Active Users Worldwide
According to the latest company update, WhatsApp has more than 2 billion monthly active users worldwide.
WhatsApp added 1 billion new users in the past 4 years alone (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.
Here’s the table of WhatsApp user growth since 2010:
| Date | WhatsApp 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 |
Sources: Meta, Statista, Yahoo
WhatsApp Monthly Active Users in the US
According to Will Cathcart (head of WhatsApp at Meta), WhatsApp reached 100 million monthly active users, with the majority of WhatsApp users using iPhones.
According to Pew Research Center survey data, 29% of US adults say they use WhatsApp.
Sources: WhatsApp, CNBC, Pew Research Center
Number of WhatsApp Messages Sent Globally per Day
According to Will Cathcart (Head of WhatsApp at Meta), 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% from 65 billion in 2018.
We’ve charted the growth of the number of messages sent daily on WhatsApp since 2011:
| Date | WhatsApp Messages Sent per Day |
|---|---|
| October 2011 | 1 billion |
| January 2015 | 30 billion |
| February 2016 | 42 billion |
| July 2017 | 55 billion |
| May 2018 | 65 billion |
| October 2020 | 100 billion |
Sources: X (Twitter), Statista, VentureBeat, Fortune
Number of Voice WhatsApp Messages Sent Globally per Day
According to a company update, on average 7 billion voice messages are sent on WhatsApp every day.
Source: WhatsApp
Average Time Spent With WhatsApp
According to data.ai intelligence, WhatsApp users worldwide on the Android app spent 16 hours 32 minutes per month or 33.1 minutes per day on the app between 1 March and 31 May 2024.
Source: DataReportal
WhatsApp Demographics by Generation in the US
Gen Z and Millennials account for over half (60%) of WhatsApp monthly active user base in the US.
Here’s a detailed breakdown of WhatsApp monthly active users by generation in the US:
| Generation | Share of WhatsApp Monthly Active Users |
|---|---|
| Gen Z (1997-2012) | 23.6% |
| Millennials (1981-1996) | 36.4% |
| Gen X (1965-1980) | 22.7% |
| Baby boomers (1946-1964) | 12.8% |
| Other (Silent Generation, Gen Alpha, and younger) | 4.5% |
Source: eMarketer
WhatsApp Reach by Age Group in the US
WhatsApp is most popular among Americans aged between 18-34, with 31% of them having a WhatsApp account as of May 2022.
Here’s the complete breakdown by age group of the registered WhatsApp reach in the US:
| Age Group | WhatsApp Usage Among Internet Users |
|---|---|
| 18-34 years | 31% |
| 35-44 years | 27% |
| 45-64 years | 20% |
| 65+ years | 11% |
| Total | 23% |
Source: Statista
WhatsApp Gender Demographics
As of Q1 2024, the WhatsApp worldwide user base consisted of 47.7% female users. Another 52.2% were male.
Source: Statista
Top 10 WhatsApp Countries Ranked by Largest Audiences
According to eMarketer data, India has more WhatsApp users than any other country, with 532.2 million monthly active users as of July 2022.
The combined user base located in the top 3 WhatsApp countries (India, Brazil, and Indonesia) reaches 750.5 million monthly active users.
Here’s the table of the ten countries where WhatsApp is the most popular, ranked by the number of monthly active users:
| Country | WhatsApp Monthly Active Users |
|---|---|
| India | 532.2 million |
| Brazil | 124.0 million |
| Indonesia | 94.3 million |
| Russia | 72.0 million |
| Mexico | 65.0 million |
| United States | 64.3 million |
| Germany | 53.1 million |
| United Kingdom | 41.4 million |
| Italy | 37.5 million |
| Spain | 32.6 million |
Source: eMarketer
WhatsApp Number of Downloads
According to Appfigures data, WhatsApp was downloaded 267 million times across the App Store and Google Play in 2024 (as of July).
Here’s a breakdown of WhatsApp downloads by month in 2024:
| Date | WhatsApp Monthly Active Users |
|---|---|
| January 2024 | 36 million |
| February 2024 | 37 million |
| March 2024 | 42 million |
| April 2024 | 37 million |
| May 2024 | 38 million |
| June 2024 | 39 million |
| July 2024 | 38 million |
Source: Appfigures
WhatsApp Application Ratings
The WhatsApp application has over 196.1 million ratings on the Android platform, with an average rating of 4.1.
Here’s the full rating breakdown for WhatsApp on Google Play:
| Rating | Number of Ratings |
|---|---|
| 1 star | 21,172,154 |
| 2 star | 7,220,385 |
| 3 star | 11,586,749 |
| 4 star | 20,074,252 |
| 5 star | 136,061,556 |
On iOS, the WhatsApp mobile application has over 14.3 million ratings, with an average score of 4.7.
Here’s the full rating breakdown for WhatsApp on iOS:
| Rating | Number of Ratings |
|---|---|
| 1 star | 451,334 |
| 2 star | 185,123 |
| 3 star | 440,804 |
| 4 star | 1,161,231 |
| 5 star | 12,049,269 |
Sources: Sensor Tower 1, Sensor Tower 2
WhatsApp Business Number of Downloads
WhatsApp has a dedicated app for managing business profiles and staying in touch with customers.
Based on Appfigures estimates, WhatsApp Business was downloaded 152.1 million times across Google Play & iOS App Store in 2024 (as of August). The vast majority, 132.6 million downloads, came from Android users, while the remaining 19.5 million installs came from iOS users.
Source: Appfigures
WhatsApp Business Monthly Active Users
WhatsApp Business reached 200 million monthly active users in June 2023, a 4x increase from 50 million reported in July 2020.
Source: Statista
Conclusion
That’s my list of WhatsApp statistics for 2024. The messenger app was already quite popular as an independent business and has grown significantly under Facebook, becoming the most popular mobile messaging app worldwide.
Hopefully, you found the listed facts and figures interesting. The data was collected from multiple sources to bring you the most important and recent stats in one place.