WhatsApp is estimated to have reached almost ************* unique active users worldwide in June 2024, up by ***** percent compared to the corresponding month in 2023. The popular instant messaging platform, which hit *********** monthly active users in February 2022, was the leading communication channel for global smartphone users in 2024.

As of March 2025, WhatsApp had three billion monthly active users, up from over 2 billion MAU in March 2020. The service is one of the most popular mobile messaging apps worldwide and was acquired by social network Facebook for 19 billion U.S. dollars in February 2014. WhatsAppWhatsApp is a cross-platform instant messaging service for smartphones that relies on the internet for the transmission of messages. Based on a low-cost subscription model, WhatsApp is a cheap alternative to carrier-billed text messaging via SMS, especially for international or group messaging. The mobile messaging app enables users to share text, image and video messages. In the United States, the WhatsApp audience amounted to 68.1 million users in 2019 and is set to grow to 85.8 million users in 2023. WhatsApp is especially popular in markets outside the United States while facing strong competition from Asia-based social messenger apps such as WeChat, LINE or Kakaotalk. WhatsApp’s popularity in emerging mobile markets is not only based on their low-cost business model but on many of its features.

In 2021, WhatsApp's user base in India amounts to approximately ****** million users. The number of WhatsApp users in India is projected to reach ****** million users by 2025. User figures have been estimated by taking into account company filings or press material, secondary research, app downloads and traffic data. They refer to the average monthly active users over the period.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).

During the fourth quarter of 2024, communication platform WhatsApp Business had over 764.38 million monthly active users (MAU). This represents an increase of over six percent compared to the beginning of the year, when the B2C communication platform had approximately 907 million MAU. Launched in 2018, WhatsApp Business allows users to connect with companies' customer service representatives using the WhatsApp instant chat ecosystem.

India recorded about 200 million monthly active users in February 2017. With over 460 million internet users, India ranked second largest in the internet market worldwide. By 2023, it was estimated that this figure would surpass over 666 million internet users. Interestingly, amongst these users, over 390 million people accessed the web over their mobile phones.

The rise of digital India

With a mobile friendly approach to the internet, the use of social media applications was correspondingly high in India. By 2021, studies had found that around 29 percent of the total population would be active social media users. Facebook, YouTube and WhatsApp were ranked among the most popular social networking sites in the country based on usage reach.

Social media transcends socio-economic boundaries

The high penetration of the mobile messaging application came as no surprise considering that the use of the messaging app had been increasing rapidly over the last few years. Although most WhatsApp users came from urban areas, rural areas recorded an increasing share of the app adoption. This adoption spread was also true across income groups. With increasing social media usage, there was also rising issues with the believability of information shared over these platforms, leading to the increase in fake news and cybercrime.

According to a survey on the usage of WhatsApp across India in 2018, almost half of the respondents aged between 18 and 25 years were active WhatsApp users. The share of active users of the app declined with an increase in the age group.

The number of WhatsApp users in Brazil was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2029 by in total *********** users (***** percent). After the ninth consecutive increasing year, the WhatsApp user base is estimated to reach ****** million users and therefore a new peak in 2029. Notably, the number of WhatsApp users of was continuously increasing over the past years.User figures, shown here regarding the platform whatsapp, have been estimated by taking into account company filings or press material, secondary research, app downloads and traffic data. They refer to the average monthly active users over the period.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).

This statistic shows a ranking of the estimated worldwide number of Whatsapp users in 2020, differentiated by country. The user numbers have been estimated by taking into account company filings or press material, secondary research, app downloads and traffic data. They refer to the average monthly active users over the period.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 more than *** countries and regions worldwide. All input data are sourced from international institutions, national statistical offices, and trade associations. All data has been are processed to generate comparable datasets (see supplementary notes under details for more information).

As of the latest reported period, WhatsApp had more than half a billion daily active Status users worldwide, up from 450 million global DAU in the second quarter of 2018. WhatsApp Status is similar to the Stories feature of other social apps such as Snapchat and Instagram, allowing users to share photos, videos and text that disappear after 24 hours. WhatsApp usage in the United States With over 1.5 billion monthly active users, WhatsApp is the most popular mobile messenger app worldwide. As of 2019, the chat app had an estimated 68 million users in the United States, with forecasts projecting an audience size of almost 86 million users in 2023. Despite a sizable app audience, WhatsApp still lags behind competitors Facebook Messenger and Snapchat in terms of U.S. mobile reach and brand awareness. However, according to recent industry data, user engagement with WhatsApp grew 44 percent year-over-year, putting it ahead of other social networks including Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. WhatsApp and Facebook In February 2014, WhatsApp was acquired by Facebook for a then unheard-of figure for such a purchase – 19 billion U.S. dollars. The mobile messenger is one of Facebook’s four billion-user properties, along with the core Facebook platform, Facebook Messenger and Instagram. During the first quarter of 2019, Facebook stated that 2.7 billion people were using at least one of the company's core products (Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram or Messenger) each month.

In 2021, WhatsApp's user base in France amounts to approximately ***** million users. The number of WhatsApp users in France is projected to reach ***** million users by 2025. User figures have been estimated by taking into account company filings or press material, secondary research, app downloads and traffic data. They refer to the average monthly active users over the period.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).

Based on the results of a survey about WhatsApp users across India in 2018, about ** percent of respondents who belonged to the poor economic class were active users of the messaging app. While this was about ** percent for upper middle class and rich respondents during the survey period.

The number of WhatsApp users in Mexico was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2029 by in total *** million users (+**** percent). After the ninth consecutive increasing year, the WhatsApp user base is estimated to reach ***** million users and therefore a new peak in 2029. Notably, the number of WhatsApp users of was continuously increasing over the past years.User figures, shown here regarding the platform whatsapp, have been estimated by taking into account company filings or press material, secondary research, app downloads and traffic data. They refer to the average monthly active users over the period.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 WhatsApp users in countries like United States and Canada.

The number of WhatsApp users in the Caribbean was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2029 by in total 0.2 million users (+2.09 percent). After the ninth consecutive increasing year, the WhatsApp user base is estimated to reach 9.71 million users and therefore a new peak in 2029. Notably, the number of WhatsApp users of was continuously increasing over the past years.User figures, shown here regarding the platform whatsapp, have been estimated by taking into account company filings or press material, secondary research, app downloads and traffic data. They refer to the average monthly active users over the period.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).Find more key insights for the number of WhatsApp users in countries like Europe and Asia.

As per the results of a survey on WhatsApp usage in India in 2017 and 2018, it was found that there was a ten percent increase in the share of active WhatsApp users in rural India to reach around ** percent in 2018. This was about ** percent in urban areas during the survey period.

Despite announcing a controversial privacy policy update in January 2021, WhatsApp has not seen a prolonged and drastic slow down in its daily active user growth. In August 2021, the leading mobile messaging app was reporting more than **** percent DAU growth compared to January 2021. By comparison, both Telegram and Signal reported losing daily active users, with Signal counting a loss of more than ** percent in its DAU compared to January.

The number of WhatsApp users in South America was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2029 by in total *** million users (+**** percent). After the fifth consecutive increasing year, the WhatsApp user base is estimated to reach ****** million users and therefore a new peak in 2029. User figures, shown here regarding the platform whatsapp, have been estimated by taking into account company filings or press material, secondary research, app downloads and traffic data. They refer to the average monthly active users over the period.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 WhatsApp users in countries like Europe and Australia & Oceania.

There are over *** million WhatsApp users in ***** alone, making it the leading country in terms of WhatsApp audience size. Second-ranked ****** had ***** million WhatsApp messenger users. ******** is one of the most used messaging services worldwide.

In 2021, WhatsApp's user base in the United Kingdom amounts to approximately 40.23 million users. The number of WhatsApp users in the United Kingdom is projected to reach 38.35 million users by 2025. User figures have been estimated by taking into account company filings or press material, secondary research, app downloads and traffic data. They refer to the average monthly active users over the period.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).

During the third quarter of 2024, Spain was the European country with the highest WhatsApp penetration rate, with approximately 91 percent of its digital population using the over-the-top messaging service. Portugal and Ireland followed with a penetration rate of more than 90 percent. Italy ranked fourth, with 89.8 percent of the internet users in the country using the Meta-owned service.

The number of WhatsApp users in Nigeria was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2029 by in total **** million users (+***** percent). After the ninth consecutive increasing year, the WhatsApp user base is estimated to reach ***** million users and therefore a new peak in 2029. Notably, the number of WhatsApp users of was continuously increasing over the past years.User figures, shown here regarding the platform whatsapp, have been estimated by taking into account company filings or press material, secondary research, app downloads and traffic data. They refer to the average monthly active users over the period.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 WhatsApp users in countries like Ivory Coast and Ghana.