Email ROI remains the headline while the threats around inboxes keep accelerating fast. Marketers still cite email as highly effective for ROI, yet phishing is the starting point for most cyberattacks and millions of fresh phishing sites appear every day. This post pulls together the most telling email statistics, from deliverability benchmarks to security budgets and compliance risk, so you can see where performance wins and where protection gaps hurt.
Key Takeaways
- 80% of marketers say email is effective for generating ROI (percent citing email effectiveness for ROI)
- 99.9% of email sending can be protected with proper authentication (statement of achievable protection level)
- 91% of cyberattacks begin with phishing (percent of attacks starting with phishing)
- 376 million new email accounts are created globally each day (daily net account creation)
- 42% of SMBs use email marketing (share of SMBs using email marketing)
- 54% of organizations use email security gateway solutions (2024 survey)
- 1.0% average bounce rate for email campaigns (industry benchmark)
- DMARC enforcement coverage reached 10% of participating domains (enforcement share)
- 41% of surveyed organizations have a formal email deliverability program (2023 deliverability benchmark)
- The US email marketing software market is expected to exceed $1 billion by 2028 (market value forecast)
- Global marketing automation software market size is estimated at $7.3 billion in 2024 (market size)
- Global email security market is expected to reach $5.1 billion by 2030 (market forecast)
- GDPR fines can reach up to €20 million or 4% of annual global turnover for certain data protection violations (maximum exposure)
- California CCPA statutory damages are $100 to $750 per consumer per incident (statutory damages range)
- Organizations with a formal incident response plan saved $1.12 million in breach costs on average in 2023 (IBM Cost of a Data Breach report)
Email delivers standout ROI, but phishing threats persist, making strong authentication and deliverability essential for protection.
Related reading
01 · Category
Industry Trends7 stats
01
80% of marketers say email is effective for generating ROI (percent citing email effectiveness for ROI)
02
99.9% of email sending can be protected with proper authentication (statement of achievable protection level)
03
91% of cyberattacks begin with phishing (percent of attacks starting with phishing)
04
45% of organizations were affected by business email compromise in 2024 (share reporting BEC impact)
05
5,800,000+ phishing websites are detected daily (daily average figure)
06
Email is cited as the channel with the highest ROI among digital channels in the US (ranked ROI leader)
07
Credential theft is implicated in 12% of breaches in Verizon’s 2024 DBIR
Interpretation
Industry Trends Interpretation
With 80% of marketers citing email as effective for generating ROI and 91% of cyberattacks starting with phishing, email is both a major industry growth lever and a top security risk, especially since 45% of organizations reported business email compromise in 2024.
02 · Category
User Adoption3 stats
01
376 million new email accounts are created globally each day (daily net account creation)
02
42% of SMBs use email marketing (share of SMBs using email marketing)
03
54% of organizations use email security gateway solutions (2024 survey)
Interpretation
User Adoption Interpretation
On the user adoption front, email continues to scale fast as 376 million new accounts are created globally each day, while adoption in business remains strong with 42% of SMBs using email marketing and 54% of organizations using email security gateway solutions.
03 · Category
Performance Metrics3 stats
01
1.0% average bounce rate for email campaigns (industry benchmark)
02
DMARC enforcement coverage reached 10% of participating domains (enforcement share)
03
41% of surveyed organizations have a formal email deliverability program (2023 deliverability benchmark)
Interpretation
Performance Metrics Interpretation
From a performance metrics standpoint, email campaigns show strong baseline deliverability with a 1.0% average bounce rate, but only 10% DMARC enforcement coverage and 41% of organizations having a formal deliverability program suggest room to improve operational performance in safeguarding inbox placement.
More related reading
04 · Category
Market Size5 stats
01
The US email marketing software market is expected to exceed $1 billion by 2028 (market value forecast)
02
Global marketing automation software market size is estimated at $7.3 billion in 2024 (market size)
03
Global email security market is expected to reach $5.1 billion by 2030 (market forecast)
04
The global anti-phishing protection market is projected to grow from $3.6 billion in 2024 to $8.9 billion by 2030 (growth forecast)
05
The global DMARC market is forecast to reach $XX million by 2031 (forecast value)
Interpretation
Market Size Interpretation
For the Market Size category, the email ecosystem is set for strong expansion with figures like the global anti-phishing protection market growing from $3.6 billion in 2024 to $8.9 billion by 2030 alongside email security reaching $5.1 billion by 2030.
05 · Category
Cost Analysis3 stats
01
GDPR fines can reach up to €20 million or 4% of annual global turnover for certain data protection violations (maximum exposure)
02
California CCPA statutory damages are $100to $750 per consumer per incident (statutory damages range)
03
Organizations with a formal incident response plan saved $1.12 million in breach costs on average in 2023 (IBM Cost of a Data Breach report)
Interpretation
Cost Analysis Interpretation
Under cost analysis, the potential impact of compliance and preparedness is stark, with GDPR penalties up to €20 million, CCPA statutory damages of $100 to $750 per incident, and an average $1.12 million reduction in breach costs for organizations that had a formal incident response plan in 2023.
06 · Category
Threat Landscape2 stats
01
63% of cybersecurity incidents are caused by phishing, according to 2023 internal intelligence findings summarized by Microsoft
02
1.6% of email messages were malicious according to Google’s 2023 transparency reporting (malware/unsafe content share)
Interpretation
Threat Landscape Interpretation
In the threat landscape for email, phishing drives 63% of cybersecurity incidents while only 1.6% of messages are flagged as malicious, showing that even a small slice of harmful email can disproportionately fuel major attacks.
Reference
Cite This Report
This report is designed to be cited. We maintain stable URLs and versioned verification dates. Copy the format appropriate for your publication below.
APA
Nathan Caldwell. (2026, February 13). Email Statistics. Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/email-statistics
MLA
Nathan Caldwell. "Email Statistics." Gitnux, 13 Feb 2026, https://gitnux.org/email-statistics.
Chicago
Nathan Caldwell. 2026. "Email Statistics." Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/email-statistics.
Sources & references
23 datasets cited across this report · attribution is report-level