Healthcare organizations send an estimated 15 billion faxes each year. 90 percent of hospitals in the United States maintain functional fax machines in active use. Multi-function printers now handle 70 percent of all business fax traffic.
Key Takeaways
- Manufacturing firms use fax for 40% of their purchase orders to suppliers in different countries
- 25% of government agencies in the US still require a fax for certain FOIA requests
- 70% of business faxing is now handled via multi-function printers (MFPs) rather than standalone units
- 82% of healthcare professionals still use fax as a primary method for exchanging patient information
- An estimated 15 billion faxes are sent annually across the global healthcare sector
- 90% of hospitals in the United States still have functional fax machines in active use
- 65% of law firms globally still use fax machines for the service of process and legal filings
- 58% of global financial institutions still utilize fax for wire transfer authorizations
- Japanese companies used 1.7 million fax machines in 2020 for business-to-business transactions
- There are an estimated 46.3 million fax machines still in use worldwide today
- The global fax services market is projected to reach $4.5 billion by 2027
- Cloud-based faxing solutions are growing at a CAGR of 11% annually
- 95% of faxes contain some form of Personally Identifiable Information (PII)
- 35% of data breaches via fax are caused by dialing the wrong number
- 40% of organizations do not have a policy for the destruction of faxed documents
Even as digital grows, fax still secures vital documents across industries, from healthcare to public records.
Related reading
01 · Category
General Business Operations30 stats
01
Manufacturing firms use fax for 40% of their purchase orders to suppliers in different countries
02
25% of government agencies in the US still require a fax for certain FOIA requests
03
70% of business faxing is now handled via multi-function printers (MFPs) rather than standalone units
04
Construction companies use faxes for 30% of their blueprint and change order transmissions
05
18% of restaurants still receive weekly orders from specialized food suppliers via fax
06
Small businesses spend an average of $50/month on a dedicated fax line
07
15% of HR departments use faxing to verify employment for previous employees
08
In the shipping industry, 35% of customs documentation is still handled via fax for speed
09
20% of hospitality bookings in non-metropolitan areas are confirmed via fax between agencies
10
Newsrooms still receive 5% of their press releases via fax to stand out from email clutter
11
12% of non-profit organizations rely on faxing for donation pledge forms
12
Educational institutions fax 25% of student transcripts to other districts
13
40% of public library visitors who use office services are there to use the fax machine
14
Printing and mailing faxes (toner, paper, labor) costs 3x more than digital alternatives
15
50% of the time, users choose fax because the recipient does not have a secure digital portal
16
Auto repair shops receive 20% of parts availability confirmations from distributors via fax
17
10% of utility companies still accept faxed proof of residency for new accounts
18
60% of professional athletes' contracts are finalized and sent to league offices via fax on deadline day
19
22% of voters in certain jurisdictions can still return their ballots via fax (overseas/military)
20
Local government offices in the US maintain an average of 3 fax machines per building
21
15% of business cards in Japan still include a fax number alongside a mobile number
22
8% of all landline phone traffic in North America is still dedicated to fax signals
23
45% of administrative assistants report using a fax machine at least once a week
24
Document imaging companies see a 10% annual increase in requests to digitize fax archives
25
30% of commercial leases include a clause allowing for "notice" via fax
26
Retailers use fax for 5% of inventory discrepancy reports to corporate headquarters
27
1 in 5 home office printers sold at Staples includes a fax port
28
Over 50% of IT help desk tickets regarding "printer issues" in legacy offices are actually fax issues
29
Trade shows globally still see a 12% registration rate via faxed forms
30
The Smithsonian Institution maintains a collection of 50 different fax machines to document history
Interpretation
General Business Operations Interpretation
Despite its digital obituary being drafted for decades, the fax machine endures as a stubborn, costly, and surprisingly vital relic, clinging to life in the bureaucratic, analog, and legally cautious corners of our modern world.
02 · Category
Healthcare Systems30 stats
01
82% of healthcare professionals still use fax as a primary method for exchanging patient information
02
An estimated 15 billion faxes are sent annually across the global healthcare sector
03
90% of hospitals in the United States still have functional fax machines in active use
04
75% of all medical communication in the United States occurs via fax machine
05
Over 60% of clinicians cite faxing as their preferred method for sharing clinical summaries
06
The average specialized clinic in the UK sends over 300 pages of patient data via fax every week
07
40% of Dutch healthcare providers still transition patient records via fax technology
08
Nursing homes rely on fax machines for 85% of their medication order transmissions to pharmacies
09
1 in 4 medical errors in the US are attributed to information silos often maintained by paper faxing
10
70% of Canadian doctors report that faxing is their primary tool for specialist referrals
11
25% of pharmacies still require a faxed copy of a prescription to verify authenticity for controlled substances
12
Radiology departments spend 15% of their administrative time managing faxed intake forms
13
Healthcare faxing volume increased by 9% during the COVID-19 pandemic due to makeshift clinics
14
55% of health insurers require faxed pre-authorization forms for specific surgical procedures
15
12% of faxed medical records are estimated to be illegible upon arrival at the provider
16
30% of UK NHS Trusts were still using more than 100 fax machines each as of 2019
17
German hospitals utilize fax for 64% of their emergency discharge notifications
18
88% of laboratories provide results to physicians via fax to ensure HIPAA compliance
19
Manual data entry from faxes costs hospitals an average of $250,000annually per facility
20
43% of medical practices have no current plans to replace their fax machines with digital portals
21
Long-term care facilities spend 10 hours a week on average just handling faxed paperwork
22
Medicare processing still involves faxing for approximately 20% of its claims clarification process
23
Clinical trials rely on faxing for 45% of adverse event reporting to ensure a paper trail
24
Internal hospital transport of patient charts has been reduced by 14% by placing fax machines at every nurse station
25
Patient referrals via fax have a 33% higher chance of missing data compared to electronic referrals
26
50% of the public health departments in the US received COVID-19 results via fax in 2020
27
Medical fax traffic in Australia increased by 20% during the rollout of My Health Record
28
72% of surveyed healthcare IT managers believe faxing is more secure than email for PI
29
Electronic faxing (e-fax) has replaced physical machines in 40% of modern city hospitals
30
18% of patient data breaches are traced back to misdirected faxes or faxes left on machines
Interpretation
Healthcare Systems Interpretation
The global healthcare sector, in a stunning act of institutional inertia, has collectively decided that the pinnacle of 1980s office technology remains the most trustworthy custodian for our most sensitive 21st-century medical data.
03 · Category
Legal and Financial Services30 stats
01
65% of law firms globally still use fax machines for the service of process and legal filings
02
58% of global financial institutions still utilize fax for wire transfer authorizations
03
Japanese companies used 1.7 million fax machines in 2020 for business-to-business transactions
04
40% of real estate closings in the US still require at least one document to be faxed
05
Over 70% of banks in Germany still offer fax communication for account balance inquiries
06
50% of credit union managers state fax is necessary for secure loan document transmission
07
35% of insurance claims are initiated or supplemented by faxed evidence
08
Legal departments in the Fortune 500 spend $15k per year on fax maintenance and supplies
09
60% of small accounting firms prefer receiving tax documents via fax over email for security
10
Securities firms use fax for 10% of their "know your customer" (KYC) document collection
11
22% of legal disputes regarding document delivery involve a fax confirmation receipt as evidence
12
Notary publics report that 15% of their remote certifications involve faxed copies
13
Bankruptcy courts in several US districts still mandate faxing for emergency filings
14
80% of Japanese legal offices consider the fax machine indispensable for daily operations
15
Debt collection agencies use fax for 25% of their formal dispute correspondence
16
48% of investment advisory firms use fax to execute trades for elderly clients
17
Real estate agents in rural areas are 3 times more likely to use faxes than urban agents
18
Mortgage lenders require faxed transcripts from the IRS for 30% of high-risk loans
19
54% of global logistics firms use fax to send bills of lading to ports
20
Court clerks in the UK receive approximately 5,000 faxed documents per month across all circuits
21
15% of business insurance renewals are completed via fax to meet signature requirements
22
Private equity firms use fax for 5% of their capital call notices to ensure delivery
23
70% of legal process servers utilize fax to confirm service with their home offices
24
42% of corporate law departments still maintain stand-alone fax machines for "sensitive" files
25
Payroll processing companies receive 12% of timesheets via fax from manual-labor clients
26
International wire transfers worth over $1M often require a "tested fax" for security
27
38% of estate planning involves faxing documents between executors and banks
28
Title companies in the US process 20% of their "clear title" documents via fax
29
Regulatory compliance filings in the energy sector are 18% fax-based for time-stamping
30
65% of litigation support professionals believe fax receipts are "gold standard" for proof of delivery
Interpretation
Legal and Financial Services Interpretation
Despite desperate attempts to kill it, the humble fax machine has become a sort of digital cockroach, stubbornly surviving in the world's most serious institutions because, ironically, its very old-fashioned nature creates a legally trusted paper trail that modern digital methods still struggle to match.
More related reading
04 · Category
Market Trends and Volume30 stats
01
There are an estimated 46.3 million fax machines still in use worldwide today
02
The global fax services market is projected to reach $4.5 billion by 2027
03
Cloud-based faxing solutions are growing at a CAGR of 11% annually
04
Japan exported over 1.2 million fax units in 2022 despite the push for digitalization
05
17% of all office multi-function printers sold in 2021 still included a fax board
06
Fax machine sales in the US declined by only 2% year-over-year in the mid-market segment
07
The search term "online fax" has seen a 25% increase in volume since 2018
08
82% of enterprises are moving from hardware-based faxing to SIP-based fax-over-IP
09
Small businesses account for 35% of the total hardware fax machine install base
10
2.5 million fax machines were sold globally in 2019, primarily in Asia and North America
11
The average lifespan of a corporate fax machine is currently 7.2 years
12
Hybrid cloud faxing represents 28% of all enterprise faxing deployments
13
Fax infrastructure maintenance accounts for 4% of the average IT budget in large law firms
14
60% of companies that use faxing have done so for more than 20 consecutive years
15
Consumables like thermal paper for faxes still generate $200M in annual revenue globally
16
Managed fax services are expected to penetrate 50% of the healthcare market by 2025
17
5 countries (Japan, US, Germany, China, Brazil) account for 80% of global fax traffic
18
Enterprise fax server software market is growing at 5.5% annually in the APAC region
19
9% of home offices in the United Kingdom still possess a dedicated fax line
20
The cost of a thermal fax machine has dropped by 60% since 2005
21
30% of global fax traffic is estimated to be marketing spam
22
In 2023, 11% of Fortune 500 companies still list a fax number on their official contact page
23
The average cost per page of a cloud fax is $0.05vs $0.12 for a traditional machine
24
52% of users of cloud fax services switched from traditional machines to save on analog line costs
25
Fax machine ink film production has stayed flat for 3 years, indicating stable legacy use
26
Digital faxing saves the average mid-sized company 20 hours of labor per month
27
45% of IT directors surveyed consider fax an "essential legacy system"
28
The Japanese government missed its 2021 goal to eliminate faxes by 90% due to pushback
29
14% of US adults have used a fax machine at least once in the last year
30
Fax machine repair services still exist in 75% of major US metropolitan areas
Interpretation
Market Trends and Volume Interpretation
Like a digital cockroach surviving an apocalypse, the fax machine persists not through merit but through the stubborn, expensive, and deeply entrenched inertia of global bureaucracy.
05 · Category
Security and Compliance30 stats
01
95% of faxes contain some form of Personally Identifiable Information (PII)
02
35% of data breaches via fax are caused by dialing the wrong number
03
40% of organizations do not have a policy for the destruction of faxed documents
04
1 in 10 fax machines in public areas (hotels, libraries) do not have memory wipe features enabled
05
"Faxploit" vulnerabilities can allow hackers to take over a network via a fax line in 2 minutes
06
77% of cybersecurity professionals recommend digital fax over physical machines to prevent physical theft
07
HIPAA fines for misdirected faxes can reach $50,000per violation
08
62% of users believe faxing is more "private" than email because it doesn't stay on a server
09
20% of fax machines in healthcare settings are located in high-traffic, unmonitored areas
10
Only 25% of legacy fax machines support encryption for data at rest
11
15% of businesses have experienced a security incident involving a fax machine in the last 2 years
12
100% of US federal agencies are technically required to move to digital records by 2022, yet many still use fax
13
50% of the public sector in Japan still requires "Hanko" seals on faxed documents for verification
14
GDPR compliance audits find fax machines as a "high-risk" area in 18% of European SMEs
15
68% of IT managers have no oversight of the faxing activities of their employees
16
Electronic fax services with TLS encryption have seen a 40% adoption spike for security compliance
17
Physical fax intercepts (wiretapping) are considered harder than email hacking by 55% of security experts
18
12% of discarded fax machines at e-waste facilities still contain sensitive data on their internal drives
19
The FBI still uses fax for certain Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for tracking purposes
20
44% of companies use faxing to comply with industry-specific laws requiring "original-looking" documents
21
30% of businesses use fax machines to bypass email filters that block large attachments
22
22% of fax machines use thermal transfer ribbons that keep a negative image of everything sent
23
8% of all phishing attempts in 2021 used a "new fax received" notification as a lure
24
Multi-factor authentication is unavailable for 99% of standalone physical fax machines
25
14% of law enforcement agencies still fax warrants to local precincts to ensure a hard copy
26
Password-protected faxing is only utilized by 5% of corporate users who have the feature
27
Over 500,000 fax numbers are currently listed in the "Do Not Call" registry due to junk faxes
28
33% of privacy officers consider "the unattended fax machine" their top physical security concern
29
Cloud fax providers claim a 99.9% uptime, exceeding the reliability of analog lines in 15% of tests
30
60% of compliance officers in legal firms mandate faxing for "confidential" attorney-client privilege memos
Interpretation
Security and Compliance Interpretation
The fax machine, stubbornly clinging to its throne in the age of quantum computing, is less a secure communication method and more a physical security breach quietly churning out PII in high-traffic hallways, waiting to be stolen, misdialed, wiretapped, or hacked, all while an unsettling number of people believe its paper trail is more private than a digital one.
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
James Okoro. (2026, February 13). Fax Machine Usage Statistics. Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/fax-machine-usage-statistics
MLA
James Okoro. "Fax Machine Usage Statistics." Gitnux, 13 Feb 2026, https://gitnux.org/fax-machine-usage-statistics.
Chicago
James Okoro. 2026. "Fax Machine Usage Statistics." Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/fax-machine-usage-statistics.
Sources & references
100 datasets cited across this report