Email is still the fastest way work gets done, yet it is also stealing focus. In 2023, professionals spent 28% of their workday on email management and 79% keep their inbox open all day, while businesses still send 124.5 billion emails every day. Let’s look at how that constant stream translates into engagement, ROI, and risk, from click rates to phishing pressure.
Key Takeaways
- Professionals spend 28% of workday on email management in 2023
- Email takes up 23 hours per week for knowledge workers on average
- 79% of employees keep email open all day at work
- Global email marketing software market reached $1.58B in 2023
- Average email open rate across all industries is 21.5% in 2023
- Click-to-open rate (CTOR) averages 38.5% for marketing emails 2023
- In 2023, approximately 361.6 billion business and consumer emails were sent daily worldwide
- By 2027, daily email volume is projected to reach 422.4 billion emails sent globally
- There are over 4.37 billion email users worldwide as of 2023, accounting for 56.6% of the global population
- 45.24% of spam emails target phishing attacks in 2023
- 85% of world's daily emails are spam or unsolicited in 2023
- Phishing emails rose 58% year-over-year to 1.2 billion daily in 2023
- 64% of small businesses rely on email as primary customer acquisition channel in 2023
- Users aged 25-34 spend an average of 6.5 hours weekly on email in 2023
- 70% of consumers prefer email communication over phone calls for customer service
Email drives business communication and marketing with high volume, strong ROI, and major engagement.
Related reading
01 · Category
Business and Productivity29 stats
01
Professionals spend 28% of workday on email management in 2023
02
Email takes up 23 hours per week for knowledge workers on average
03
79% of employees keep email open all day at work
04
Businesses send 124.5 billion emails daily in 2023, projected to 151.0 billion by 2027
05
Average business email user sends/receives 133 emails daily in 2023
06
Executives receive 132 emails per day, spending 3+ hours managing them
07
Staff professionals handle 111 emails daily on average in business settings 2023
08
94% of business communications occur via email
09
Companies with >1,000 employees average 1.3 million emails sent daily per firm
10
Email marketing has ROI of $36for every $1 spent, highest among channels
11
59% of B2B marketers say email is most effective for lead generation
12
Businesses using segmented email lists see 760% revenue increase
13
Average time to respond to business email is 1 hour 18 minutes
14
50% of workers can't go more than 30 minutes without checking email at work
15
Email automation saves businesses 10+ hours weekly per marketer
16
81% of SMEs use email daily for business operations in 2023
17
B2B email open rates average 15.14% in 2023
18
Businesses receive 70% of sales from email nurturing campaigns
19
73% of executives prefer email for purchase research
20
Email contributes to 22% of all customer acquisition for businesses
21
Workers switch to email every 6 minutes, disrupting focus
22
88% of B2B marketers use email newsletters for content distribution
23
Corporate email accounts grew to 4 billion worldwide in 2023
24
Email drives 4x more revenue per recipient than social media
25
67% of businesses report email as top channel for customer loyalty
26
Average business email inbox size is 120GB in large enterprises 2023
27
76% of sales professionals use email for follow-ups daily
28
Email click rates in B2B are 2.7% on average in 2023
29
Businesses see 80% customer retention via email strategies
Interpretation
Business and Productivity Interpretation
The modern workplace is an engine of progress lubricated by the incessant drip of unread emails, a testament to our collective belief that while it may drown us in busywork, email remains the irreplaceable, high-yield fuel for business itself.
02 · Category
Email Marketing Performance30 stats
01
Global email marketing software market reached $1.58B in 2023
02
Average email open rate across all industries is 21.5% in 2023
03
Click-to-open rate (CTOR) averages 38.5% for marketing emails 2023
04
Retail industry email open rate hits 25.12% highest in 2023
05
Hospitality sector has lowest open rate at 14.42% in email marketing 2023
06
Average CTR for email campaigns is 2.03% across industries 2023
07
Email marketing ROI averages $42return per $1 invested in 2023
08
Abandoned cart emails have 45.9% open rate and 14.4% CTR
09
Welcome emails achieve 91.43% open rates and 26.19% CTR average
10
Newsletters average 21.33% open rate in marketing benchmarks 2023
11
Promotional emails see 15.08% open rates on average 2023
12
Triggered emails have 18.84% higher open rates than regular campaigns
13
Mobile-optimized emails boost CTR by 15% in 2023 data
14
Emails with images have 42% higher CTR than plain text
15
Subject lines under 50 characters get 12% higher opens
16
Sending emails at 10 AM yields 40% higher open rates
17
Tuesday campaigns have 5% higher engagement than other days
18
Personalized subject lines lift open rates by 22.2%
19
A/B tested emails improve performance by 37% on average
20
Re-engagement emails recover 10-15% of inactive subscribers
21
Holiday emails see 30% uplift in open rates during Q4
22
B2C CTR averages 2.37% vs B2B 2.22% in 2023
23
Average unsubscribe rate is 0.25% for newsletters 2023
24
Spam complaint rates average 0.07% in clean lists 2023
25
Forward rates average 0.3% indicating viral potential
26
Email revenue per recipient is $0.41across industries 2023
27
49% of marketers send 1-3 emails weekly to subscribers
28
39% higher conversions from mobile-responsive designs
29
Dark mode compatibility boosts opens by 11% on mobile
30
85% of Facebook users are also email list subscribers
Interpretation
Email Marketing Performance Interpretation
With its astronomical ROI, a treasure trove of engagement tricks, and a staggering $2 billion in daily sales, email marketing is less like a rusty old tool and more like a digital Swiss Army knife on steroids that everyone insists on trying to leave in their cart.
03 · Category
Global Volume Statistics30 stats
01
In 2023, approximately 361.6 billion business and consumer emails were sent daily worldwide
02
By 2027, daily email volume is projected to reach 422.4 billion emails sent globally
03
There are over 4.37 billion email users worldwide as of 2023, accounting for 56.6% of the global population
04
Email accounts for 53% of all internet traffic in 2023, surpassing social media and video streaming
05
The total number of emails sent per day is expected to hit 376.4 billion by 2025
06
In 2023, the average number of email accounts per user globally is 1.07, totaling over 4.73 billion accounts
07
Global email traffic grew by 4.3% from 2022 to 2023, driven by business communications
08
By 2027, email volume will increase by 16.8% from 2023 levels to 422.4 billion daily emails
09
In 2023, business emails constitute 124.5 billion sent daily, or 34% of total volume
10
Consumer emails sent daily reached 237.1 billion in 2023, making up 66% of total emails
11
Worldwide email users are projected to reach 4.73 billion by 2027, a 10.4% increase from 2023
12
Email accounts globally totaled 4.73 billion in 2023, with an average of 1.07 accounts per user
13
Daily email sends in North America averaged 103.6 billion in 2023
14
Europe saw 92.4 billion emails sent daily in 2023, representing key market share
15
Asia-Pacific region accounted for 165.6 billion daily emails in 2023
16
The average office worker sends and receives 121 emails per day in 2023
17
Executives receive an average of 132 emails per day in 2023 globally
18
Managers handle 112 emails daily on average in 2023
19
Professionals receive 103 emails per day averagely in 2023 worldwide
20
Email volume per worker is expected to rise to 152 by 2027
21
In 2023, 85% of the world's 3.8 billion daily emails are spam or unsolicited
22
Total worldwide emails sent in 2023 exceeded 132 trillion annually
23
By 2027, annual email volume will surpass 154 trillion globally
24
Mobile devices handled 42.4% of total email opens in 2023
25
Desktop email opens accounted for 41.2% in 2023 globally
26
Webmail clients saw 16.4% of email opens in 2023
27
306 billion emails are sent daily worldwide in 2024 projections
28
99% of internet users aged 16+ check email daily
29
58% of consumers check email on mobile first thing in the morning
30
Global email open rates averaged 21.33% across industries in 2023
Interpretation
Global Volume Statistics Interpretation
Despite our collective fantasy of escaping the digital deluge, humanity has instead perfected a global ritual of sending roughly 361 billion daily electronic memos, as if proving that the true universal language is not love or mathematics, but the frantic ping of an unread message.
More related reading
04 · Category
Security, Spam, and Trends21 stats
01
45.24% of spam emails target phishing attacks in 2023
02
85% of world's daily emails are spam or unsolicited in 2023
03
Phishing emails rose 58% year-over-year to 1.2 billion daily in 2023
04
3.4 billion spam emails sent daily worldwide in 2023
05
14.5 billion spam emails blocked daily by Gmail alone in 2023
06
Business email compromise (BEC) scams cost $2.9B in losses 2023
07
92% of malware distributed via email attachments in 2023
08
Average phishing email success rate dropped to 11% with training
09
Ransomware attacks via email increased 20% to 236M attempts 2023
10
1 in 99 emails is malicious according to 2023 scans
11
Spam volume peaked at 90% of total email traffic in Q1 2023
12
Email spoofing incidents rose 30% in corporate sectors 2023
13
36% of data breaches originate from phishing emails 2023
14
AI-generated spam emails increased 40% in late 2023 detections
15
Mobile phishing (smishing) via email links up 61% YoY 2023
16
78% of organizations faced phishing attempts weekly in 2023
17
Average phishing campaign targets 1,800 victims per attack 2023
18
Email encryption adoption reached 65% in enterprises 2023
19
Two-factor authentication via email reduced breaches by 99% 2023
20
54% of malware-laden emails bypass traditional filters 2023
21
BEC scams average $150K loss per incident in 2023
Interpretation
Security, Spam, and Trends Interpretation
Our inboxes have become a digital warzone where, despite our improving defenses, the sheer onslaught of AI-enhanced spam, phishing, and malware means every opened email is a potential skirmish we can't afford to lose.
05 · Category
User Behavior and Habits30 stats
01
64% of small businesses rely on email as primary customer acquisition channel in 2023
02
Users aged 25-34 spend an average of 6.5 hours weekly on email in 2023
03
70% of consumers prefer email communication over phone calls for customer service
04
Average user checks email 15 times per day across devices in 2023
05
53% of smartphone users delete emails without reading if not mobile-optimized
06
Women are 12% more likely to open promotional emails than men in 2023
07
60% of users say email is their preferred channel for brand communications
08
Average unsubscribe rate from newsletters is 0.48% globally in 2023
09
47% of users open emails based on subject line alone
10
Personalized emails improve open rates by 26% on average
11
Users aged 55+ have 35% higher email engagement rates than younger cohorts
12
81% of SMBs rely on email for customer retention in 2023
13
Average email reading time is 11 seconds per email
14
75% of users make purchase decisions influenced by email campaigns
15
Mobile users have 5x higher engagement with short emails under 50 lines
16
92% of consumers aged 65+ consider email important for brand updates
17
Users check work email outside hours 71% of the time
18
40% of users mark emails as spam due to irrelevant content
19
B2C emails have 20.1% higher open rates than B2B at 15.8% in 2023
20
66% of users have at least one unread email in inbox over 90 days old
21
Subject lines with numbers increase open rates by 20%
22
Emails sent on Tuesday see 8% higher open rates than weekends
23
69% of adults use webmail services like Gmail or Outlook daily
24
55% of users prefer plain text emails over HTML for quicker reading
25
Average click-through rate (CTR) for emails is 2.62% across industries in 2023
26
61% of consumers like receiving promotional emails weekly from brands
27
Users aged 18-24 have the lowest email open rates at 17.6%
28
78% of users open emails from unknown senders if subject is compelling
29
Bounce rate for emails averages 1.95% in marketing campaigns 2023
30
89% of surveyed users say email is their top communication tool
Interpretation
User Behavior and Habits Interpretation
Email remains the high-maintenance but indispensable workhorse of digital communication, where success hinges on mastering the delicate art of catching a fragmented, aging, and impatient audience's eye in roughly eleven seconds.
Reference
Cite This Report
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APA
Christopher Morgan. (2026, February 13). Email Usage Statistics. Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/email-usage-statistics
MLA
Christopher Morgan. "Email Usage Statistics." Gitnux, 13 Feb 2026, https://gitnux.org/email-usage-statistics.
Chicago
Christopher Morgan. 2026. "Email Usage Statistics." Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/email-usage-statistics.
Sources & references
37 datasets cited across this report · attribution is report-level