WhatsApp 2023 User Statistics: How Many People Use WhatsApp?
Written by Brian Dean
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:
- WhatsApp statistics (Top Picks)
- WhatsApp monthly active users
- Number of WhatsApp messages sent globally per day
- Time spent with WhatsApp
- WhatsApp usage frequency in the US
- WhatsApp reach by age group in the US
- WhatsApp gender demographics
- Top 10 WhatsApp countries ranked by largest audiences
- Top 10 fastest-growing WhatsApp markets (% change)
- WhatsApp number of downloads
- WhatsApp application ratings
- WhatsApp Business number of downloads
- Number of users interacting with business profiles on WhatsApp
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.