How Many Emails Are Sent Per Day in 2023?

Walt Disney once said: If you can dream it, you can do it.

And many great people did dare to dream in the last 100 years!

It is an age of miracles, don’t you think?

Microsoft, Apple, Google, Tesla… not unlike Mickey Mouse, they became a worldwide phenomenon and game-changers in their fields.

Now, not so many years ago people rode on carriages and wrote letters with quills.

Today the basics remain, but the mediums have changed.

Visionaries dreamed, and letters evolved into emails.

Today we shine a spotlight on the question:

How many emails are sent per day?

How about we warm up with some global email statistics:

• The average number of emails in an inbox is 200.
• 93% of B2B marketers use email marketing to proliferate content.
• 73% of millennials use emails for a business.
• 99% of consumers check their personal emails at least once every day.
• 28% of all emails are opened on iPhones.  
• At least 5 out of 10 emails were spam in 2019.
• About 60 billion spam emails will be sent daily between 2019 to 2023.

Alright, so...

How many people use email in 2023?

There are approximately 4.147 billion email users in 2021. For comparison, there were 4.03 billion users in 2020. In other words, although there are a lot of alternative means of communication today, email is still the most popular.

How many emails are sent out per day?

Now, that is a question with a few caveats. We’ll explain those in just a bit. Read on and see for yourself.

Emailing statistics these days are quite staggering!

So, let’s turn our email counter on and get started.

How Many Emails Are Sent per Day 2023 Statistics

Do people still send emails in 2022?

The following statistics on how many emails are sent per day in 2022 tell us. Let’s get started. 

1. There are 244.5 million email users only in the United States.

(Source: Statista)

63% of American email users have only one email account. What’s more, 6% have more than four email accounts. In addition, over half of US respondents check their personal accounts more than ten times a day. 

2. About 60 billion spam emails will be sent daily between 2019 to 2023.

(Source: Campaign Monitor)

In a bid to keep users’ inbox free of malicious and spammy emails, many internet service providers are constantly developing stricter spam filters. Over 50% of email users are of the opinion that spams are a significant problem of the email service.

3. Gmail blocks an average number of 100 million spam email messages daily.

(Source: Venture Beat)

An average person spends 11 hours weekly going through work messages. According to reports on how many emails are sent per day on Gmail, 14.5 million email spams are sent daily. But reports have it that as of 2015, Gmail was already blocking 99.9% of spam phishing and malware.

4. People have several email accounts for different purposes globally.

(Source: Convince and Convert)

People choose to have separate email accounts for different reasons such as the need to separate personal matters from business, to protect their online identity, and as a means of improving security. As of 2019, the average number of email accounts to one user is 1.75. And reports go further to tell us that this number is expected to reach 1.86 by 2022.

5. In Q3 2020, the United States accounted for 10.85% of spam emails globally.

(Source: Statista)

Spam statistics indicate that the US only comes third to Russia (23.52%) and Germany (11.01%). Reports state that these spam emails range from adult content to info on the stock market and personal financial information.

6. The average number of emails in an inbox is 200.

(Source: Harvard Business Review)

Statistics show that an average professional only responds to 25% of emails in her inbox. Furthermore, professionals check their emails every 37 minutes - that's 15 times per day.

Fascinating Facts

So, let’s see what the most impressive email statistics have to say.

7. The average office worker receives 120 emails every day.  

(Source: Campaign Monitor)

Corporate email continues to rule in the world of business. Some new platforms have been on the rise for the past few years, however.  

For example, nowadays Slack is one of the most popular cloud-based tools for inter-office communication.

Still, for the time being, no platform stands a chance of dethroning email.

8. By the end of 2023, the estimated number of active email users will be 4.4 billion.

(Source: Statista, The Verge)

And since we can’t talk of office discourse without including the Slack stats for comparison…

In March 2020, Slack had around 12.5 million daily active users.

Email still rules supreme.

9. The daily number of business emails received and sent is 124.5 billion.

(Source: Campaign Monitor)

Yes, business correspondence is mostly email-based. And statistics say the numbers will continue to rise. If you want to easily find a business email address, you can use services like Contactout. 

10. In 2020, there were 306.4 billion emails sent every day.

(Source: Statista)

The average number of emails per day is absolutely breathtaking, isn’t it?

(Imagine a horror movie with a working title “How Many Emails do I Have?" You wake up one day and discover that your inbox is the only one in the world. No one else receives any emails. You open it and there are 306.4 billion unopened messages. Goosebumps!)

If 306.4 billion seems a lot, brace yourself:

11. In 2023, more than 347.3 billion emails will be sent daily.

(Source: Statista)

Yes, it is a lot! But think about the role of spam messages in all this. We’ll get to that in a moment.

12. The average office worker sends out 40 work-related emails and receives 90 of them each day.

(Source: Templafy)

We’ve all been there. On Monday morning (after weekends or vacations) you go to work, open your email and there’s the dreaded avalanche of received emails: to-dos, notification, deadlines, feedback, you name it.

According to Statista, only 24% of people in the US never check their emails during vacations in 2018.

Well, the other 76% surely just like to avoid the post-vacation inbox madness.

13. 2.4 billion emails get sent every second. That’s 74 trillion emails every year.

(Source: Templafy)

Today’s businesses definitely count on emails for every service - inter-office communication, email marketing, B2B relations, and B2C correspondence.

14. In 2020 Gmail has over 1.8 billion users. For comparison, in 2018 Gmail it had only 1.5 billion users.

(Source: Campaign Monitor)

How many emails per day do you think they generate?

Gmail was launched in April 2004 and is 18 years old now. In internet time that’s a lot!

It is by far the most popular email platform nowadays.

70% of all Americans check their emails as often as possible in 2018. This might be why 85% of American emails get opened via a smartphone. The share of mobile email is huge these days!

15. The number of global e-mail users will grow to 4.37 billion users in 2023.

(Source: Radicati)

In 2021, that figure was at 4.147 billion users.

According to email usage statistics, there are as many email users today, as the population of China, India, and Europe put together. (That explains the daily email traffic, right?)

16. 9% of email users were fans of Microsoft Outlook.

(Source: Litmus)

Outlook is one of the world’s first email services - it was founded in 1996 as Hotmail. A large part of its user base consists of older folks who like to stick to what works.

17. In 2020 marketing emails got a 20.56% open rate.

(Source: Kinsta)

Recent email statistics show a 2.56% growth from 2018, where the average marketing email open rate sat at 18%.

The rise of mobile makes email more accessible than ever – which has allowed the rate to make this jump.

18. The cloud business email market is estimated to hit $60.74 billion in 2022.

(Source: Statista)

Cloud-based email services are attracting more and more attention these days. They offer a vast array of features, such as a high level of protection, support for mobile devices, excellent remote access, and reasonable subscriber costs.

Adopting a cloud email service for your business is definitely a step in the right direction!

Now that we covered the basics, we can go deeper to the darker side of the email.

19. Nearly all email users check their email daily.

(Source: Optinmonster)

And they check it frequently too! Research has shown that some users check their emails 20 times in a single day to ensure that they don’t miss anything important.

This is definitely some good news for your business.

Spam and Email Marketing

There are lots of creatures that roam the realm of email statistics. Some of them are hiding in the dark corners and occasionally wreak havoc, others can make it rain.

Let’s have a look at.

The Giant Ogre that Is Email Spam

Unsolicited commercial emails, a.k.a. spam, are the worst!

It’s like a mosquito - no one thinks about it until it bites you and… well… you know.

Alright, so what qualifies as spam and what to be on the lookout for?

Let’s see:

• If they offer you something in exchange for seemingly nothing - it could be spam!
• If they are asking you some personal financial information - spam! There is a difference between offering financial services (which can be legit), and asking you for your bank account number.
• If they are asking you to keep something a secret - spam!
• Adult content - highly likely to be spam!
• Info on the stock market you never asked for - spam!

What Are Malware and Phishing?

Malware spam messages contain software that is designed to take over your computer. Once the device is compromised, it can start sending out malware spam messages on its own.

Phishing attacks are designed to steal a set of credentials you own. They do so by creating a copy of a website you trust. If you land there and try to log in, you essentially hand your credentials over to the perpetrator of the attack.

Then they can use those to assume control over your real account - this includes social network profiles, email, and even your online banking account.

Protect yourselves and your data, guys! Be watchful, get a good antivirus, and create strong passwords (or even better - use a password manager)

Now:

How many spam emails are sent per day?

20. According to Statista, 47.3% of all emails are spam.

(Source: Statista, DataProt)

This value was recorded as of September 2020, and it represents a significant improvement. Only a year prior, 55% of emails were spam.

Here are some more spam facts for you. Between June 2020 and January 2021, the average daily spam volume dropped from 316.39 billion to just over 122 billion.

21. 39% of all spam emails are health-related.

(Source: Statista)

The second place goes to product emails with 12%.

And the bronze medal is tied, with adult-related content and extortion emails coming up with 10% each.

Amongst all the numerous spam emails received every day, you’re most likely to receive a health-related one.

According to spam statistics:

22. 7.02% of all spam emails in Q2 of 2020 came from China.

(Source: Secure List)

Considering this number sat at 20.43% in Q3 of 2019, it looks like China has recently slowed down on spam production.

However, just be on the lookout for those Chinese characters, and you’ll be fine. The ones in English are more subtle and need more attention.

Fun fact about spam:

On May 1, 2021, email spam will celebrate its 43rd birthday. No cake and candles, though!

Email Marketing

Email marketing is easily the marketing channel with the best ROI. Lots of us nowadays are comfortable shopping online - and marketing emails can give us just the information we need.

Establishing a connection with your customers via email is invaluable in 2022.

Just saying - in case you still haven’t gotten around to it.

23. For every dollar spent on email marketing, you would get $42.

(Source: Oberlo)

These email statistics reiterate the fact that emails are a powerful platform for marketing, in case you haven’t noticed. It is the top marketing channel to invest money in – you can’t ignore that kind of ROI!

24. In 2020, mobile accounted for 46% of all email opens.

(Source: HubSpot)

In addition, 35% of business professionals check their received emails on a mobile device.

Mobile is making it rain these days. According to mobile statistics, the number of mobile users in 2023 is forecast to reach 7.33 billion.

Yup, mobile provides us with a vast array of opportunities.

Consequently, those who invest in responsive design will be the ones to feel the thunder of mobile email stats the most.

In the pre-responsive era, we had to adjust our screen to every image and piece of content (not to mention in those days, the internet was way slower).

Email marketing will definitely help your business grow!

25. Nearly 9 out of 10 marketers use email marketing to distribute their content organically.

(Source: Oberlo)

Because email marketing has such a strong ROI, it has proven to be one of marketers’ favorite content distribution methods.

The latest emailing statistics show that about 87 percent of marketers use email marketing to share their content. This places email as the third most popular distribution channel, only behind social media (91%) and company websites and blogs (89%).

Visual Email Trends in 2022

The next step in the email’s evolution is through new content types.

Personalization, interactivity, and creativity become the biggest assets when you want to attract the user’s attention.

The formula includes - more images and interactive content.

Let’s have a look at what’s fashionable in the realm of emails in 2022:

Emojis

Millennial culture has left its mark on what an email looks like nowadays. You can’t escape those emojis, GIFs, and video backgrounds - they’re everywhere. 

Our obsession with images today has brought us a tad closer to the culture of ancient Egypt and modern Asia. Those guys love bright colors, websites full of content, links, images, and videos.

It was actually a Japanese UI designer, Shigetaka Kurita, who invented emojis and revolutionized texting.

This happened way back in 1998, by the way.

Using emojis in email subject lines and content (which leads to increased open rate), is totally new, though!

26. Almost 60% of millennial and Gen Z consumers think companies are overusing emojis.

(Source: ZoomInfo)

Just because emojis can lead to higher conversion rates doesn’t mean you should overuse them in your emails. 59% of consumers aged 18 to 34 believe brands use too many emojis, so you might want to be careful with that.

27. 56% of emails with an emoji in the subject line enjoyed a higher open rate.

(Source: Campaign Monitor)

By sending such emails, you also get a higher response rate. Additionally, an emoji makes your subject line shorter, which is a welcome bonus as any marketer will tell you.

Did you know that in 2011, Apple released iOS 5.0 and it was the first one to support emojis?

28. 87% of marketers plan to invest more money in email marketing.

(Source: Email on Acid)

Email marketing will become even more popular in the future. It truly is a gold mine for marketers!

APNG and GIFs

Animations can personalize your message further. As such, they’re definitely a type of content to experiment with in your campaigns.

29. 51.28% of marketers use animated GIFs in their marketing emails.

(Source: Litmus)

GIFs are a great way to stand out from the crowd.

One warning, though – be aware of the size of your GIF before you send them. They can get really heavy. If your emails load slowly, it can leave readers with a negative impression of your company.

Video, Video, Video

Videos can be a more effective way of communicating information for some types of people. And they are fun!

You can either embed a video in your email or use a static image with a play button that directs to the video.

Easy-peasy!

According to statistics:

30. Including a video background in your website design can improve your conversion rate by 138%.

(Source: Website Builder Expert)

Moving pictures attract attention for a reason. Website design statistics show that your email campaign will instantly become better once you add one to your website!

31. Including a video in your email boosts open rates by 19%, click-through rates by 65%, and it will reduce unsubscription rates by 26%.

(Source: Campaign Monitor)

Take advantage of that info right away and see the results for yourself. You’ll thank me later.

OK, what else?

AMP in Gmail

Now, that’s pretty cool!

In March 2019, Google launched a new feature for Gmail. It’s called AMP, which stands for Accelerated Mobile Pages.

It will enable users to stay in their email while browsing other pages. You will be able to make changes in real time, without leaving your inbox.

Imagine being able to complete an assignment, book a restaurant, or fill out a questionnaire, all from the convenience of your Gmail inbox.

Well done, Google!

Fun Facts

Moving away from serious business, let’s have some fun facts for a change, shall we?

Email is older than WWW

Email was invented by Ray Tomlinson and although it was very limited in the beginning, people have been using it since the 1960s.  

That’s all very cool, but did you know that the World Wide Web was invented in 1989? That’s right - almost two decades after the email.

The first web browser was launched in 1990 in Geneva, Switzerland, and boy, did that change things!

The symbol @ weighs 25 pounds

Before it was adopted by email, the at symbol was featured in three different languages - Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian. In the 16th century, the first two cultures used to signify the word arroba - which was a unit of weight that equaled 25 pounds. Some South American countries use it to this day.

The Italians also used it - again as a unit of measure. This time it represented an amphora or a standard measure for wine.

Oh well, times change.

Email in Real-life Interactions

The email has left a mark on everyday interactions as well.

32. 17% of Americans check their emails during a conversation.

(Source: Statista)

Our 24/7 access to email, while useful, has become a distraction for some.

33. 13 and Suddenly...Gmail

(Source: Entrepreneur)

You have to be at least 13 to register for a Gmail account.

Why 13? Isn’t 12 or 14 better? Apparently, 13 is the email’s coming-of-age time.

(Jeez, even Stephen King himself says he is terrified of the number 13! And if the King of Horror says he’s afraid of something...)

Recap

Today we asked the hot question:

How many emails are sent per day?

The answer is: 306.4 billion emails are sent per day in 2022. The number is expected to reach 347.3 billion in 2023.

Also: 55% of all email today is spam.

Let’s see the most important stats in a nutshell:

• The average office worker receives 120 emails per day.
• Cloud business email will be worth $60.74 billion in 2022.
• Email marketing ROI is 4200% in 2019.
• An emoji in your email subject line will boost your open rate.
• There were 1.5 billion Gmail users in 2018.

Nowadays there are lots of ways to make a great first impression with an email.

Customized illustrations and videos are among them. In the near future, there are going to be even more animations, 3D images, and video backgrounds... and of course - emojis.

Users will always appreciate it if you add a surprise element in your content - and these are all easy ways to do just that!

Be creative, adjust for mobile, follow the latest trends, and beware of those spam messages!

Now you know how many emails are sent per day, guys… among a wealth of other things.

Have a great time sending and receiving emails, everyone! It’s worth it!