Apps

WhatsApp user statistics: How many people use WhatsApp?

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 3 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 2026.

Key stats about WhatsApp (Top picks)

  • WhatsApp has over 3 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 100 billion messages are sent each day on WhatsApp.
  • More than 7 billion 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 3 billion monthly active users worldwide.

WhatsApp added 1 billion new users in the past 5 years alone (2020-2025).

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

DateWhatsApp Monthly Active Users
October 201010 million
December 201150 million
July 201275 million
October 2012100 million
January 2013133 million
March 2013166 million
April 2013200 million
June 2013250 million
August 2013300 million
October 2013350 million
December 2013400 million
January 2014430 million
February 2014465 million
April 2014500 million
August 2014600 million
January 2015700 million
April 2015800 million
September 2015900 million
February 20161 billion
January 20171.2 billion
July 20171.3 billion
December 20171.5 billion
February 20202 billion
April 20253 billion

Sources: Meta, Statista, Yahoo

WhatsApp monthly active users in the US

WhatsApp has an estimated 124 million active users in the US as of Q2 2025, Sensor Data shows.

WhatsApp monthly active iOS users in the US increased by 39% since 2020.

According to Mark Zuckerberg (CEO at Meta), WhatsApp has over 100 million monthly active users in the US as of Q1 2025.

According to the company update, WhatsApp hit a milestone of 100 million monthly active users in July 2024.

According to Pew Research Center survey data, 32% of US adults say they use WhatsApp.

Sources: Sensor Tower, The Wall Street Journal, WhatsApp, Meta, 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:

DateWhatsApp Messages Sent per Day
October 20111 billion
January 201530 billion
February 201642 billion
July 201755 billion
May 201865 billion
October 2020100 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 recent data, WhatsApp users worldwide on the Android app spent an average of 59 minutes per day in August 2025.

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:

GenerationShare 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 GroupWhatsApp Usage Among Internet Users
18-34 years31%
35-44 years27%
45-64 years20%
65+ years11%
Total23%

Source: Statista

WhatsApp gender demographics

As of Q2 2025, the WhatsApp worldwide user base consisted of 48.6% female users. Another 51.3% were male.

Source: DataReportal

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:

CountryWhatsApp Monthly Active Users
India532.2 million
Brazil124.0 million
Indonesia94.3 million
Russia72.0 million
Mexico65.0 million
United States64.3 million
Germany53.1 million
United Kingdom41.4 million
Italy37.5 million
Spain32.6 million

Source: eMarketer

WhatsApp number of downloads

According to Appfigures data, WhatsApp was downloaded 292.36 million times across the App Store and Google Play in 2025 (as of October).

Here’s a breakdown of monthly WhatsApp downloads since January 2024:

DateWhatsApp Monthly Active Users
January 202436.26 million
February 202437.15 million
March 202441.51 million
April 202436.71 million
May 202438.44 million
June 202438.74 million
July 202438.07 million
August 202442.19 million
September 202435.33 million
October 202432.13 million
November 202436.69 million
December 202438.44 million
January 202539.29 million
February 202533.63 million
March 202534.83 million
April 202527.4 million
May 202530.05 million
June 202528.25 million
July 202526.61 million
August 202524.15 million
eptember 202524.12 million
October 202524.03 million

Source: Appfigures

WhatsApp application ratings

The WhatsApp application has over 212 million ratings on the Android platform, with an average rating of 4.32.

Here’s the full rating breakdown for WhatsApp on Google Play:

RatingNumber of Ratings
1 star21 million
2 star7.1 million
3 star10 million
4 star18 million
5 star156 million

On iOS, the WhatsApp mobile application has over 98 million ratings, with an average score of 4.67.

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

RatingNumber of Ratings
1 star3.4 million
2 star1.4 million
3 star3.2 million
4 star8.3 million
5 star82 million

Sources: Appfigures

WhatsApp business number of downloads

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

Based on Appfigures estimates, downloads of WhatsApp Business across Google Play and iOS App Store reached 170.9 million in 2025 (as of October).

All-time downloads of WhatsApp Business mobile apps reached 1.3 billion (as of November 2025).

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 2026. 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.

Explore more on

WhatsApp Facebook Mark Zuckerberg Meta WhatsApp Business Android App store Appfigures CNBC Demographics of the United States EMARKETER Generation X Generation Z Google Play India Indonesia Instant messaging Internet use IOS Millennials Mobile app Pew Research Center Social media marketing Statista The Wall Street Journal United States VentureBeat X Yahoo!
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