The number of WhatsApp users in North America was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2029 by in total 7.6 million users (+4.97 percent). After the ninth consecutive increasing year, the WhatsApp user base is estimated to reach 160.51 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 Worldwide and Africa.

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.

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.

As of April 2022, Brazil presented the highest share of WhatsApp users, with around nine in 10 messaging app users in the country engaging with the social and instant messaging app. WhatsApp had a penetration rate of approximately 97 percent among messaging and chat app users in India and Italy. Phone messaging users in Australia presented the lowest usage share of WhatsApp, with only 33 percent of mobile phone messaging app users reporting engaging with the Meta-owned app.

In May 2022, an online survey in the United States found that around three out of ten respondents aged between 18 and 34 years had a WhatsApp account. Similarly, 27 percent of the respondents aged between 35 and 44 years were registered on the popular mobile messaging app. Registered users appeared to decline among older age groups, with only 20 percent of respondents aged between 45 and 64, as well as 11 percent of respondents aged 65 years and over reporting having a WhatsApp account.

In March 2025, around ************** of respondents in Russia used WhatsApp, which was the largest share compared to other messenger applications. The share of Russians who used Telegram reached ** percent, while the third-most popular messenger was VKontakte Messenger. Messenger use in Russia Almost ** percent of Russians used instant messaging platforms in 2024, as compared to ** percent in Brazil and ** percent in the United Kingdom (UK). Among internet users, the share of online chat and messenger services consumers in Russia stood at **** percent, same as the global average. WhatsApp in Russia While other social media platforms by Meta Platforms are banned in Russia, WhatsApp can be used in the country. Users aged 25 to 44 years spent the most time on the messenger in the first seven months of 2024. The penetration rate of WhatsApp in Russia stood at around ** percent as of 2022, which was lower than in Brazil and Italy, but higher than in Sweden and Australia.

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.

When it comes to Poles communicating with their friends and family through mobile apps, the Facebook messaging app was the most frequently chosen mobile app. As of February 2022, 86 percent of Polish people used the Messenger application to communicate with others. WhatsApp ranked second, with 54 percent of respondents using the app. Polish instant messaging client Gadu-Gadu came second to last with approximately one in 10 respondents communicating through the app.

The profile of a Messenger user 

Mobile communication in Poland has been dominated by Facebook messenger. In January 2022, there were over 18 million Messenger users in Poland, which constituted an increase of roughly 1.5 million users compared to the year before. The majority of the app’s users were between 25 and 34 years old, with women dominating the age group share. Moreover, the same age group made up the highest share of the social media advertising audience Facebook, Instagram, and FB Messenger in Poland.

Mobile messaging 

 Mobile messaging is a type of instant online chat that offers real-time text transmission via the internet. In Poland, mobile devices are used by almost 63 percent of users to access the virtual world, with Samsung and Xiaomi holding the largest share of the smartphone market in the country. Therefore, Poles are open to communicating with others through mobile apps. Just over 32 percent of average internet users and almost 68 percent of Poles threatened with Internet addiction use the internet every day or nearly every day to contact friends via messengers such as Messenger (Facebook), WhatsApp, or GG (Gadu-Gadu). Moreover, almost half of Poles enjoy using emoticons as they find the virtual smileys an important way of expressing their emotions.

During a survey fielded in Brazil in January 2025 among mobile internet users who had WhatsApp installed on their phones, ** percent of respondents said they used this app daily. In January 2022, ** percent of users surveyed stated the same. Additionally, more than half of news consumers aged 47 and older in Brazil used WhatsApp as a source of news.

As of the third quarter of 2020, WhatsApp users were sending approximately 100 billion messages each day on the popular chat app. This represents an increase of over 66 percent compared to the last quarter of 2017 when global users of the popular messaging app sent approximately 60 billion instant messages on a daily basis.

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.

This statistic shows a ranking of the estimated number of Whatsapp users in 2020 in Asia, 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).

WhatsApp was the leading actively used messenger service in Germany in 2021. Almost 84 percent of users confirmed this. While WhatsApp is foremost a messaging service, certain features indicate similarities with social media networks, as sharing and posting between users still occurs, just not necessarily on a publicly accessible website. Delivering the message For most of the population, modern life is unimaginable without messenger apps. Texting has become much more varied as a form of communication thanks to extended file and content sharing options within messages. There is no doubt that WhatsApp is a popular messaging app in Germany. In 2023, almost 85 percent of people were messaging on WhatsApp every day. By 2025, it is estimated that over 53 million people will be using WhatsApp in Germany, suggesting it's popularity as a messaging app will not diminish with time. Personal data While Facebook is extremely popular in many different countries, long-term questions and concerns from users continue to arise, with personal data security being one of the leading topics of discussion. In general, the there have been many breaches of personal data online. At the same time, social media continues to enjoy rising popularity and use among the German population, both in a private and professional context.

What age group uses WhatsApp the most in the Netherlands? In 2018, 97 percent of 15-19 year old Dutch teenagers used the IM app, whereas the penetration rate was lower for 40-to 64-year-olds, reaching 84 percent in this age group. WhatsApp had roughly 12 million users in the Netherlands in 2019.

WhatsApp among the top visited online brands

According to a ranking based on the monthly reach of online brands in the Netherlands, WhatsApp was the seventh most-visited brand of the country in 2018. Early 2019, the app had an online reach (the percentage of visitors that visited specific content at least once a month) of approximately 63 percent on smartphones.

The most popular social media platform among Millennials

In 2018, 90 percent of the Millennial respondents in the Netherlands (the age group from 22 to 36 years) said they used WhatsApp. This was higher than, for example, Facebook. The social network from Silicon Valley was used by roughly 79 percent of Millennials that year.

As of the third quarter of 2024, more than 70 percent of internet users in France were using Facebook. WhatsApp was the second most popular messaging platform, with a 66.6 percent usage reach. Additionally, 60.7 percent of French online audiences used Instagram as of the examined period.

As of September 2019, Facebook Messenger was the most popular mobile messenger app in the United States with 106.4 million unique U.S. users. Snapchat ranked second with an audience of almost 45.98 million users. As of that period, Facebook Messenger had a 57 percent mobile audience reach in the United States. Mobile messaging Mobile communications through messenger or chat apps is one of the leading online activities. The most-downloaded communication apps in the United States include WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger (and its less data-intense version, Messenger Lite) and Telegram. In March 2019, WhatsApp had over 70 million global downloads from the Google Play Store. During a November 2018 survey, it was found that 34 percent of U.S. adults had used one messaging service in the past month, and only four percent had used six services or more. Snapchat Snapchat is also one of the leading mobile messaging apps in the United States. The app, which focuses on multimedia messaging with photos and short video clips, is especially popular with teenage audiences. In spring 2019, it was found that Snapchat was the most important social network for 41 percent of U.S. teens. In 2018, there were almost 80 million Snapchat users in the United States and this figure is projected to increase to 78.1 million users in 2023.

In 2019, WhatsApp was the most popular instant messaging app among mobile users in Colombia. According to the survey, ** percent of the 16 to 45 year old respondents stated that they used the app on a daily basis, up from ** percent of those surveyed the previous year.

WhatsApp had an online reach of nearly ********** people in the Netherlands in August 2020. This is an increase when compared to the same period one year before. Dutch audiences were most exposed to WhatsApp on their smartphone. As of 2019, approximately ************ people in the Netherlands used WhatsApp, making it one of the most popular social media platforms of the country. As of 2018, roughly ** percent of Dutch respondents aged ******** years old used WhatsApp Messenger.

Reach is normally defined as the percentage of visitors that visited specific content at least once during a certain period. The Netherlands has two different methods to measure online reach (in Dutch: bereik) of brands: GfK DAM and the "Nederlands Online Bereiksonderzoek" or NoBO. The numbers provided here are from the latter.

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).

According to a survey of Swedish internet users conducted between the end of January and February 2022, ** percent of respondents reported have using SMS to chat or exchange instant messages in the examined period. Using Facebook Messenger appeared to be the second most popular method to chat, with more than *** in ** respondents reporting to use the social media platform. Approximately ** percent of users reported using WhatsApp to exchange instant messages.