The global number of smartphone users in was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2029 by in total *** billion users (+***** percent). After the fifteenth consecutive increasing year, the smartphone user base is estimated to reach *** billion users and therefore a new peak in 2029. Notably, the number of smartphone users of was continuously increasing over the past years.Smartphone users here are limited to internet users of any age using a smartphone. The shown figures have been derived from survey data that has been processed to estimate missing demographics.The shown data are an excerpt of Statista's Key Market Indicators (KMI). The KMI are a collection of primary and secondary indicators on the macro-economic, demographic and technological environment in up to *** countries and regions worldwide. All indicators are sourced from international and national statistical offices, trade associations and the trade press and they are processed to generate comparable data sets (see supplementary notes under details for more information).Find more key insights for the number of smartphone users in countries like the Americas and Asia.

The global smartphone penetration rate was estimated at ** percent in 2024, up from 2023. This is based on an estimated *** billion smartphone subscriptions worldwide and a global population of around *** billion. Regional differences in smartphone penetration Throughout the world, the smartphone penetration rate in the general population varies greatly. For example, in North America and Europe, the smartphone adoption rate stands at roughly ** and ** percent, respectively. Whereas in Sub-Saharan Africa, the same rate only stands at ** percent as of late 2023, showing a roughly ** percent difference in adoption rates between the highest and lowest ranked regions. Global smartphone shipments The number of global smartphone shipments saw a drop in recent years. However, the number of shipments is expected to recover to previous levels in the upcoming years. Most recently, Samsung and Apple have been leading the share of smartphone shipments worldwide, with other competitors such as Xiaomi and Oppo are catching up. Most of the top contributors to the smartphone market are concentrated in the Asia-Pacific region, which is also the region is the one with the most smartphone sales to end users as a whole.

This web map visualizes the prevalence of households in a given geography that do not own a computer, smartphone, or tablet. Data are shown by tract, county, and state boundaries -- zoom out to see data visualized for larger geographies. The map also displays the boundary lines for the jurisdiction of Rochester, NY (visible when viewing the tract level data), as this map was created for a Rochester audience.This web map draws from an Esri Demographics service that is updated annually to contain the most currently released American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year data, and contains estimates and margins of error. To see the full list of attributes available in this service, go to the "Data" tab, and choose "Fields" at the top right. Current Vintage: 2014-2018ACS Table(s): B28001, B28002 (Not all lines of ACS table B28002 are available in this feature layer)Data downloaded from: Census Bureau's API for American Community Survey Date of API call: December 19, 2019National Figures: data.census.govThe United States Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS):About the SurveyGeography & ACSTechnical DocumentationNews & UpdatesThis ready-to-use layer can be used within ArcGIS Pro, ArcGIS Online, its configurable apps, dashboards, Story Maps, custom apps, and mobile apps. Data can also be exported for offline workflows. Please cite the Census and ACS when using this data.Data Note from the Census:Data are based on a sample and are subject to sampling variability. The degree of uncertainty for an estimate arising from sampling variability is represented through the use of a margin of error. The value shown here is the 90 percent margin of error. The margin of error can be interpreted as providing a 90 percent probability that the interval defined by the estimate minus the margin of error and the estimate plus the margin of error (the lower and upper confidence bounds) contains the true value. In addition to sampling variability, the ACS estimates are subject to nonsampling error (for a discussion of nonsampling variability, see Accuracy of the Data). The effect of nonsampling error is not represented in these tables.Data Processing Notes:This layer is updated automatically when the most current vintage of ACS data is released each year, usually in December. The layer always contains the latest available ACS 5-year estimates. It is updated annually within days of the Census Bureau's release schedule. Click here to learn more about ACS data releases.Boundaries come from the US Census TIGER geodatabases. Boundaries are updated at the same time as the data updates (annually), and the boundary vintage appropriately matches the data vintage as specified by the Census. These are Census boundaries with water and/or coastlines clipped for cartographic purposes. For census tracts, the water cutouts are derived from a subset of the 2010 AWATER (Area Water) boundaries offered by TIGER. For state and county boundaries, the water and coastlines are derived from the coastlines of the 500k TIGER Cartographic Boundary Shapefiles. The original AWATER and ALAND fields are still available as attributes within the data table (units are square meters). The States layer contains 52 records - all US states, Washington D.C., and Puerto RicoCensus tracts with no population that occur in areas of water, such as oceans, are removed from this data service (Census Tracts beginning with 99).Percentages and derived counts, and associated margins of error, are calculated values (that can be identified by the "_calc_" stub in the field name), and abide by the specifications defined by the American Community Survey.Field alias names were created based on the Table Shells file available from the American Community Survey Summary File Documentation page.Negative values (e.g., -555555...) have been set to null. These negative values exist in the raw API data to indicate the following situations:The margin of error column indicates that either no sample observations or too few sample observations were available to compute a standard error and thus the margin of error. A statistical test is not appropriate.Either no sample observations or too few sample observations were available to compute an estimate, or a ratio of medians cannot be calculated because one or both of the median estimates falls in the lowest interval or upper interval of an open-ended distribution.The median falls in the lowest interval of an open-ended distribution, or in the upper interval of an open-ended distribution. A statistical test is not appropriate.The estimate is controlled. A statistical test for sampling variability is not appropriate.The data for this geographic area cannot be displayed because the number of sample cases is too small. NOTE: any calculated percentages or counts that contain estimates that have null margins of error yield null margins of error for the calculated fields.

The percentage of respondents who don't own a smart phone, because they use someone else’s smartphone. The respondents are the entire civilian, noninstitutionalized population age 15 and up in the target economies.

Percentage of smartphone users by selected smartphone use habits in a typical day.

In 2021, the number of mobile devices operating worldwide stood at almost 15 billion, up from just over 14 billion in the previous year. The number of mobile devices is expected to reach 18.22 billion by 2025, an increase of 4.2 billion devices compared to 2020 levels.

Moving forward with 5G

As the number of devices grows, so does our dependence on them to fulfill daily functions and activities. The use cases for mobile devices increasingly demand faster connection speeds and lower latency. The 5G network will be critical to fulfilling those demands, operating at significantly faster rates than 4G. In North America, for example, it is expected that there will be 218 million 5G connections, up from just ten million in 2020. This means around 48 percent of all mobile connections in North America. Globally, this figure should reach 20.1 percent by 2025.

6G: looking beyond 5G

While 5G has entered commercialization and is already creating new opportunities, researchers and engineers are already experimenting with 6G. Not only will the number of mobile devices continue to grow but cellular internet-of-things (IoT) devices are set to permeate more industrial sectors in the coming years, meaning a solution will eventually be required for network congestion and data transfer speeds.

6G ought to be capable of solving those problems before they arise, potentially enabling a network connection density ten times greater than that of 5G, and peak data rates up to fifty times faster than the rate of 5G. The Federal Communications Commission in the United States has opened spectrum for experimentation, and China have already launched what is described as a 6G satellite, so that actual potential of 6G should be revealed over the coming decade.

The percentage of respondents who don't own a smart phone, because buying a mobile data plan is too expensive. The respondents are the entire civilian, noninstitutionalized population age 15 and up in the target economies.

The percentage of respondents who don't own a smart phone, because they don’t have enough money to buy one. The respondents are the entire civilian, noninstitutionalized population age 15 and up in the target economies.

Imagine waking up to the gentle buzz of your phone, checking the morning news, scrolling through messages, and booking your ride to work, all before even leaving your bed. This small routine speaks volumes about the place mobile phones hold in our lives today. By 2025, mobile phones aren’t just...

In 2022, smartphone vendors sold around 1.39 billion smartphones were sold worldwide, with this number forecast to drop to 1.34 billion in 2023.

Smartphone penetration rate still on the rise

Less than half of the world’s total population owned a smart device in 2016, but the smartphone penetration rate has continued climbing, reaching 78.05 percent in 2020. By 2025, it is forecast that almost 87 percent of all mobile users in the United States will own a smartphone, an increase from the 27 percent of mobile users in 2010.

Smartphone end user sales

In the United States alone, sales of smartphones were projected to be worth around 73 billion U.S. dollars in 2021, an increase from 18 billion dollars in 2010. Global sales of smartphones are expected to increase from 2020 to 2021 in every major region, as the market starts to recover from the initial impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

📊 About the Dataset

Technology adoption has been evolving rapidly, shaping industries and consumer behaviors worldwide. This dataset provides insights into global gadget consumption trends from 2015 to 2025, covering smartphones, laptops, gaming consoles, smartwatches, and 5G penetration rates.

🎯 Use Cases

• 📈 Market research & consumer behavior analysis
• 🔮 Forecasting future tech adoption trends
• ♻️ Studying the impact of e-waste generation
• 🌐 Understanding 5G penetration across different countries

📑 Column Descriptions

Percentage of Canadians using a smartphone for personal use and selected habits of use during a typical day.

Smartphone ownership in the United States is most common in the younger age groups. 97 percent of adults aged 18 to 49 own a smartphone, while the penetration rate of smartphones amongst adults 65 years and older is only 76 percent.

Slovenia Telecom Market size was valued at USD 1.3 Billion in 2024 and is projected to reach USD 1.7 Billion by 2032, growing at a CAGR of 3.2% from 2026 to 2032.

Drivers

Growing Smartphone Penetration: A high percentage of the population owns smartphones, leading to increased demand for mobile data services. Increasing Data Consumption: The rising use of data-intensive applications like video streaming and online gaming fuels the need for more bandwidth. 5G Rollout and Infrastructure Development: Investments in 5G networks are crucial to meet the growing demand for high-speed mobile internet access and to support new technologies. Demand for Bundled Services: Consumers are increasingly looking for converged services and bundled offerings that combine fixed and mobile services, as well as content. Government Initiatives Promoting Digitalization: The Slovenian government's focus on digital transformation initiatives and support for infrastructure development are pushing market growth. Rise of IoT and Smart Devices: The increasing adoption of IoT devices creates new demands for connectivity and data services.

The number of smartphone users in the United Kingdom was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2029 by in total *** million users (+**** percent). After the ninth consecutive increasing year, the smartphone user base is estimated to reach ***** million users and therefore a new peak in 2029. Notably, the number of smartphone users of was continuously increasing over the past years.Smartphone users here are limited to internet users of any age using a smartphone. The shown figures have been derived from survey data that has been processed to estimate missing demographics.The shown data are an excerpt of Statista's Key Market Indicators (KMI). The KMI are a collection of primary and secondary indicators on the macro-economic, demographic and technological environment in up to *** countries and regions worldwide. All indicators are sourced from international and national statistical offices, trade associations and the trade press and they are processed to generate comparable data sets (see supplementary notes under details for more information).Find more information concerning Denmark and Latvia.

According to Cognitive Market Research, The Global NFC enabled Handsets market will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20.50% from 2023 to 2030.

The demand for NFC enabled handsets is rising due to increasing demand for mobile payments.
Demand for feature phones remains higher in the NFC enabled handsets market.
The mobile payment category held the highest NFC enabled handsets market revenue share in 2023.
North America will continue to lead, whereas the Asia Pacific NFC enabled handsets market will experience the most robust growth until 2030.

Increasing Demand for Mobile Payments to Drive Market Growth

Mobile payments using NFC enabled handsets offer a faster and more convenient alternative to traditional payment methods. Users can complete transactions with a simple tap, reducing the time spent at the checkout. The increasing penetration of smartphones, including NFC enabled handsets, provides a larger user base for mobile payment solutions. As more people own smartphones, the potential for mobile payments grows.

Smartphone shipments from India reached 168 million units in 2021, and it is anticipated that they will reach 190 million units in 2022.

(Source: www.ibef.org/industry/electronics-system-design-manufacturing-esdm)

Mobile wallet applications like Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay have gained traction. These wallets rely on NFC technology and have become increasingly integrated into daily routines. Mobile payments extend beyond physical retail stores. Users can make online and in-app purchases using their NFC enabled handsets, broadening the scope of mobile payment applications.

Growing Adoption of Wearable Technology to Drive Market Growth

Wearable devices, especially smartwatches, are increasingly used for mobile ticketing applications. Users can store electronic tickets for public transportation, events, or flights on their wearables, simplifying ticketing. Some banks and financial institutions offer apps that are compatible with wearable devices. Users can check their account balances, receive transaction alerts, and even make mobile payments using NFC enabled wearables.

Exports of electronic goods increased by 50.52% from US$ 15.66 billion in FY22 to US$ 23.57 billion in FY23, a record high.

(Source: www.ibef.org/industry/electronics-system-design-manufacturing-esdm)

NFC enabled wearables are used for health and fitness applications. Users can tap their devices to collect data from fitness equipment, make payments for health services, or even access their medical records securely.

Market Dynamics Of the NFC enabled Handsets

Lack of Awareness and Education to Hinder Market Growth

The lack of education about the various applications of NFC technology can result in a limited understanding of its potential use cases beyond mobile payments. This can hinder the development of new NFC-based services. The lack of awareness about NFC security features can lead to unfounded concerns and reluctance to use NFC enabled handsets for secure transactions. Some individuals and businesses may perceive NFC technology as too complex or difficult to implement. This can discourage exploration and adoption.

Key Trends of the NFC enabled Handsets

The Rapid Increase in the Use of Contactless Payments and Digital Wallets

With the worldwide growth of mobile payment systems such as Google Pay, Apple Pay, and Samsung Pay, there is a significant demand for NFC-enabled smartphones. Consumers are favoring fast, secure, and touchless transactions, particularly in the aftermath of the pandemic, which has led to a rise in the incorporation of NFC chips in mid-range and entry-level devices across various markets.

Integration with IoT and Smart Ecosystems

NFC-enabled smartphones are being utilized increasingly for purposes beyond payments, including pairing with smart devices, access control, ticketing, and identity verification. As smart home technologies, wearables, and interconnected infrastructure expand, NFC devices act as a central hub, enhancing their importance in everyday digital interactions.

Impact of COVID-19 on the NFC enabled handsets market

COVID-19, both positive and negative, significantly impacted the market for NFC enabled smartphones. The pandemic accelerated the adoption of contactless payment methods due to concerns about the transmission of the virus through ...

The smartphone penetration in the Philippines was forecast to continuously decrease between 2024 and 2029 by in total 6.4 percentage points. According to this forecast, in 2029, the penetration will have decreased for the fourth consecutive year to 65.75 percent. Notably, the smartphone penetration of was continuously increasing over the past years.The penetration rate refers to the share of the total population.The shown data are an excerpt of Statista's Key Market Indicators (KMI). The KMI are a collection of primary and secondary indicators on the macro-economic, demographic and technological environment in up to 150 countries and regions worldwide. All indicators are sourced from international and national statistical offices, trade associations and the trade press and they are processed to generate comparable data sets (see supplementary notes under details for more information).

This forecast shows the number of smartphone users in France from 2018 to 2024. For 2020, the number of smartphone users in France is estimated to reach 47.18 million, with the number of smartphone users worldwide forecast to exceed 2 billion users by that time. From 2018 to 2024 the number of smartphone users in France is expected to grow by close to four million users. This equates to a growth in the share of users by 26.26 percent. The data was calculated in July 2018 and covers all individuals of any age who own one or more smartphones and use at least one of those devices every month.

The leading operating system on the the French market is Android with a 75.6 percent market share followed by Apple's iOS with a 18.8 percent share. Most individuals without a smartphone still owned a regular mobile phone and only 7 percent of the population did not own either. The most common smartphone owned in January 2017 was the Apple iPhone 7 followed by the iPhone 7 Plus. The three most common activities carried out weekly with a smartphone were the use of search engines, checking email accounts, and visiting social networks.

As of October 2025, 6.04 billion individuals worldwide were internet users, which amounted to 73.2 percent of the global population. Of this total, 5.66 billion, or 68.7 percent of the world's population, were social media users. Global internet usage Connecting billions of people worldwide, the internet is a core pillar of the modern information society. Northern Europe ranked first among worldwide regions by the share of the population using the internet in 2025. In the Netherlands, Norway, and Saudi Arabia, 99 percent of the population used the internet as of February 2025. North Korea was at the opposite end of the spectrum, with virtually no internet usage penetration among the general population, ranking last worldwide. Eastern Asia was home to the largest number of online users worldwide—over 1.34 billion at the latest count. Southern Asia ranked second, with around 1.2 billion internet users. China, India, and the United States rank ahead of other countries worldwide by the number of internet users. Worldwide internet user demographics As of 2024, the share of female internet users worldwide was 65 percent, five percent less than that of men. Gender disparity in internet usage was bigger in African countries, with around a 10-percent difference. Worldwide regions, like the Commonwealth of Independent States and Europe, showed a smaller usage gap between these two genders. As of 2024, global internet usage was higher among individuals between 15 and 24 years old across all regions, with young people in Europe representing the most considerable usage penetration, 98 percent. In comparison, the worldwide average for the age group of 15 to 24 years was 79 percent. The income level of the countries was also an essential factor for internet access, as 93 percent of the population of the countries with high income reportedly used the internet, as opposed to only 27 percent of the low-income markets.

The number of smartphone users in India was estimated to reach over *********** in 2023. It was estimated that by 2040, the number of smartphone users in India will reach **** billion. Smartphone users in India The number of smartphone users worldwide is projected to amount to nearly *** billion by 2027. It is expected that, by 2022, more than two thirds of the total global population will use a smartphone. Due to China’s rapid growth, the country has become a distant leader in the smartphone market, leaving the U.S., which previously held the top position, far behind. Smartphone users in China already accounted for ** percent of the country’s population in 2022. By 2028, more than ** percent of the population in China is projected to use a smartphone. For 2022, the number of smartphone users in China amounted to nearly **** billion. India, the second most populous country in the world, passed the United States in the number of smartphone users in 2017. Around *** million people in the U.S. use a smartphone by 2017, compared to *** million in India. Despite this increase in volume, the U.S. still has a higher smartphone penetration rate than India. The smartphone penetration rate in India reached close to ** percent by 2023, a penetration rate that the U.S. already reached in 2019. Samsung was the leading smartphone vendor in India in 2022, followed by Xiaomi and Vivo.