27+ WhatsApp Statistics for 2025: Users, Countries & More
If you’re not visiting from another planet, chances are you have WhatsApp installed on your mobile phone. It’s hard to imagine a time when it wasn’t the go-to messaging app for millions.
Today in 2025, WhatsApp is the most popular messaging app in the world and the 4th most popular social media app, following Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.
In this article, we’ll dive into the most important WhatsApp user statistics you need to know. Plus, we’ll explore the real story behind WhatsApp, its growth in users over the years, and the role of WhatsApp in business.
Want to know how many users are on WhatsApp? What country uses WhatsApp the most? How popular is WhatsApp Business? Read along as we answer your questions.
Before we jump into key statistics, facts, and figures, let us tell you the story of when WhatsApp launched and how it came to be.
History of WhatsApp
The origins of WhatsApp aren’t the usual startup scenario involving students dropping out of college to develop their idea, build a product, and get pre-seed funding from giants like Google & Facebook.
The founders of WhatsApp were already in their thirties and had well-paid jobs with a renowned company when they decided to take a bet on what today has become the most popular messaging app in the world.
Source: Inc.
Early in 2009, Jan Koum & Brian Acton conceptualized and developed a status update application (hence the name WhatsApp). In the beginning, that was all the app was meant to do—let users update their whereabouts & ping each of their friends with statuses like, “Having a coffee” or “Can’t talk, I’m in a meeting.”
Very soon, users started having fun with the app and began chatting with each other through statuses. Someone would post “How are you, @Jim?” and Jim would answer by changing his status.
This led to an update of the application, which transformed it into the instant messaging application billions of people love to use today.
Facebook, realizing the app’s potential, acquired WhatsApp in 2014 for a staggering $19 billion and later introduced the WhatsApp Business app, which lets brands build their business profiles and communicate with their customers professionally.
Businesses use WhatsApp Business for multiple use cases, including marketing their products, addressing their customer issues, and closing deals.
While WhatsApp Business app is free and has many features for small businesses, it simply isn’t enough for large businesses that need to scale.
To appeal to medium-to-large businesses, WhatsApp Business API was later introduced, which enables businesses to integrate WhatsApp with their product offerings and interact with their customer on scale.
Key WhatsApp statistics
- WhatsApp is available in over 180+ countries and 16 languages;
- It’s the most popular messaging app in over 100 countries;
- Downloaded over 5 billion times on iOS & Android;
- 2.9 billion active users worldwide;
- Users spend an average of 34 minutes on WhatsApp every day
- WhatsApp has a marketing penetration rate of 97%
- Over 100 billion messages & 100 million voice calls daily are sent on WhatsApp;
- India has the highest number of active WhatsApp users in the world, with an estimated 596.6 million monthly active users in 2024.
Sources: Statista, Bloggingwizard, Skillademia
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What is the total revenue of WhatsApp?
WhatsApp contributes a small part of Facebook’s revenue. It generates almost all of it from WhatsApp for Business, which charges businesses for usage after 1,000 conversations.
In 2021, WhatsApp generated $790 billion in revenue, almost all from the WhatsApp Business app.
Now, revenue generated by WhatsApp Business amounts to an estimated $382 million, of which $155 million came only from Asia.
Europe was the second highest, spending around $90 million on the messaging app.
Note: These numbers are estimates.
How many active users are on WhatsApp?
Since early 2013, WhatsApp has gained 200 million active users, and the daily message volume has continued to climb.
After it was acquired by Facebook in 2014, WhatsApp’s active user base saw an immense 365% increase, from 465 million to 2 billion monthly users.
After reaching 2 billion monthly active users in February 2022, the leading communication channel is projected to reach almost 3.14 billion unique active users worldwide by the end of 2025.
WhatsApp currently boasts the highest open rate among nearly all social media apps. Research shows that 83% of active WhatsApp users open the app every day, placing it considerably ahead of its nearest rival, Facebook.
How many WhatsApp messages are sent daily?
Over 100 billion messages are exchanged daily on WhatsApp.
This graph shows a brief overview of its growth in the volume of daily messages.
Sources have reported that there has been an increase of almost 55% in the number of messages sent on WhatsApp since 2018 - and this growth shows no signs of slowing down.
How much time do users spend on WhatsApp?
WhatsApp users spend 17 hours on the app every month.
Research shows the average Android user spends around 33.5 minutes on WhatsApp daily. Between the start of the pandemic and March 2020, WhatsApp recorded a spike of 40% increase in time spent on the app.
Here are some figures representing the average number of hours in 2025 spent on WhatsApp daily per country to put things into perspective:
- Indonesia - 25 hours
- Brazil - 24 hours
- Australia - less than 3 hours
- United States - 4 hours
Source: Statista
What demographic uses WhatsApp?
- More than 60% of WhatsApp monthly active users in the US. are Gen Z and millenials.
- Gen X accounts for 22.7% of WhatsApp users monthly, while baby boomers account for 12.8%.
- 30% of WhatsApp users are aged between 30 and 49
- 33% of WhatsApp users are college graduates
- 22% iOS users and 73% Android users
Source: eMarketer
WhatsApp gender demographics
Regarding WhatsApp gender demographics, there’s a clear distribution of users with 52.8% of recorded WhatsApp users being male, and the rest being female.
What countries use WhatsApp the most?
With 535.8 million active users, India is, by far, the country with the largest number of WhatsApp users, projected to reach a staggering 795.67 million users by the end of 2025.
India - 535.8 million
Brazil - 139.3 million
United States - 91.3 million
Indonesia - 86.9 million
Mexico - 69.7 million
Russia - 66.7 million
Pakistan - 52.3 million
Germany - 51.9 million
Philippines - 51.2 million
Nigeria - 51 million
Source: Skillademia
Top territories using WhatsApp
1. Latin America (LATAM)
Many Latin American countries rank in the top 20 for WhatsApp usage. Mobile Growth Association (MGA) believes this is due to issues like uncompetitive mobile carriers and high costs of texting and calling. In some countries, like Colombia, providers offer unlimited WhatsApp use as part of their plans.
For many, the high costs of texting and calling are unaffordable. WhatsApp is a cheaper alternative, letting people communicate freely via WiFi. It helps them avoid the high mobile data costs common in many LATAM nations.
In Latin America, WhatsApp is essential for daily communication and has mostly replaced texting. It’s ideal for the developing world, where less developed carriers increase reliance on the app.
2. Middle East (MENA Region)
Chat channels are becoming more popular in the Middle East. WhatsApp and Snapchat make up 10% of all mobile data traffic. This number is expected to grow. Research by Northwestern University in Qatar shows that 75% of nationals in seven countries—Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and UAE—already use WhatsApp.
3. Asia
According to We Are Social, the Asia-Pacific region has 2.14 billion active social media users and a 50% penetration rate.
WhatsApp is popular in countries like Hong Kong and Indonesia, where 87% of internet users use it monthly. In Singapore, 73% of the population uses WhatsApp daily.
What areas are newly adopting WhatsApp?
1. Africa
WhatsApp is the most popular messaging app in most African countries, with high penetration rates across the continent. In Kenya, 97% use it, 96% in South Africa, and 95% in Nigeria. In Zimbabwe, WhatsApp accounts for nearly 44% of all mobile internet use.
2. USA
WhatsApp started in the USA, but it had only 75 million users in 2020. In 2024, Mark Zuckerberg announced on his WhatsApp channel that active users in the US have reached 100 million.
Among US ethnic groups, Hispanic Americans use WhatsApp the most (46%), followed by African Americans (23%) and Caucasians (16%), according to the Pew Research Center.
When was WhatsApp Business app launched?
WhatsApp Business app was launched in January 2018 to help companies manage business profiles and interact with customers better
Appfigures wrote that as of October 2023, WhatsApp Business was downloaded 21 million times across Google Play and App Store. 18 million of these downloads came from Android users, while the remaining 3 million were iOS users.
In Q1 2024, there were 4.88 million downloads in the US alone. Worldwide, WhatsApp was the most downloaded messaging app with more than 51 million downloads.
Key WhatsApp Business statistics
- In its 1st year, over 5 million user accounts were created.
- In 2024, WhatsApp Business was downloaded 311 times by global users, up by 3% from the previous year.
- In the fourth quarter of 2024, the number of WhatsApp Business users reached 764.38 million users.
Source: Statista
When was WhatsApp Business Platform launched?
The WhatsApp Business Platform was launched in late 2018, designed for businesses that need more advanced tools to communicate with their customers at scale. Unlike the WhatsApp Business app, the API allows companies to integrate WhatsApp messaging capabilities directly into their customer communication platforms.
The following statistics - reported by businesses in different sectors - further strengthen the value of WhatsApp for businesses:
- 225% faster customer service
- 99.4% reduced time to complete an order
- 60% cost reduction with fewer paper statements delivered
- 21% increase in net promoter score
Curious about WhatsApp Business API and how it can benefit your business?
How many businesses use WhatsApp Business?
Today, over 50 million brands are using WhatsApp as a business tool. More than that, 175 million customers send messages or interact with a business account on WhatsApp on a day-to-day basis.
In terms of WhatsApp Business monthly active users, the app recorded over 200 million monthly active users as of June 2023.
Research has shown that people are much more likely to open a WhatsApp message than they are to open an email. With WhatsApp’s 98% open rate, it’s no wonder more people are shifting from email marketing to WhatsApp marketing.
WhatsApp Business number of downloads
In 2018, WhatsApp Business was downloaded 37.58 million times. The following year saw an increase of about 63 million downloads. By 2020, downloads had surged to over 175 million. In 2021, the app was downloaded 220.52 million times & this number grew by 31% or 69 million downloads.
In 2024, WhatsApp Business was downloaded more than 310 million times, which is about 3% better than in 2023.
What countries download WhatsApp Business the most?
As of 2024, India leads in WhatsApp Business usage with 291.58 million downloads. Indonesia is second with 73.12 million downloads, and Brazil follows closely with 69.50 million. Pakistan, Nigeria, and Egypt also have significant numbers, with downloads ranging from 16 to 48 million.
Conclusion
WhatsApp has changed the way we talk to each other and do business. It started as a simple app for messaging but has grown to include features that help businesses talk to customers. The WhatsApp user statistics presented in this article show its expansive reach and continual growth in features tailored for professional use.
WhatsApp is widely used because it’s easy to use and helps businesses improve their customer service. As the app keeps updating, it’s expected to remain a top choice for personal chats and business communications.
Looking ahead, WhatsApp will likely keep leading in the messaging world by adapting to users’ needs and introducing new features. This will help ensure it stays important for both everyday chats and professional use.
Want to learn more about how WhatsApp is shaping the future of business communication?
Frequently Asked Questions
Tarek previously worked as a product engineer at Intercom. Prior to that, he travelled to live and work in numerous places around the world.
He’s now living in a small fishing town in rural south Ireland, and enjoys the nature around.He climbs hills whenever he can, and enjoys the rare, but lovely Irish sunny days.
