50+ Interesting Information Technology Statistics, Facts & Growth 2024

Informational technology is the fastest-growing sector right now.

Depending on the category, the workforce is expected to double or even quadruple in the next 10 years.

Discover how big is the technology industry right now, how fast it’s recovering from a pandemic, and what is the current biggest tech sector.

Do you know how many people already have access to the internet?

Learn this and much more in the article down below.

Facts About Technology

• Technology is the second largest industry in the US, bringing around 10% of GDP each year.
• More than 55.3 million people work in the technology field worldwide.
• The technology industry is expected to grow by 5.3% in 2022.
• The global IT market was worth $8.3 trillion in 2021, and it’s expected to reach $9.3 trillion in 2022.
• Over 5.25 billion people worldwide have access to the internet, which represents 63% of the world population.
• Out of that, 4.65 billion people use some kind of social media.
• On average, people are spending 6 hours and 58 minutes daily using the internet.
• The e-commerce market is worth $3.3 trillion worldwide.

How much of the US economy does technology represent?

US tech sector brought around $1.8 trillion to the country’s gross domestic product in 2021.

That’s 9.3% of total GDP that year. The tech sector is bringing similar percentages to the GDP since 2018.

(Statista)

The US’s GDP contribution to the technology sector per year.

Technology was the second biggest industry in the US in 2020, right after healthcare.

Sources: Statista, Investopedia

Find links to sources bottom.

How many people are employed in tech companies?

By 2021, there were around 12.4 million Americans employed in tech companies.

In 2020, the number was 12.2 million. 8 million jobs come from tech occupations, whereas 7.7 million jobs come from the tech industry.

Since these two areas intertwine, one person can occupy both, so you can’t simply sum the two numbers together.

55.3 million people worked in the tech field worldwide in 2020.

That’s a 3.9% increase over the previous year.

Experts expect around 245,500 new jobs in the tech sectors by the end of 2021.

In the US, the number of the employments technology industry has increased by 209% in the last 5 years.

It’s projected that some tech occupations will increase dramatically in the next 10 years.

25.62% of human resources professionals plan to recruit at least 50 new developers in their companies in 2022.

Most companies (38.84%) will recruit up to 10 developers.

Sources: CompTIA, CompTIA 2, Statista 2, Statista 20

Tech-related demographics

77.3% of IT professionals are men, whereas 22.7% are women.

10% of IT professionals are LGBT.

Payment inequality is also present in the IT world in 2021, where on average, women earn 95% of what men earn.

The most common ethnic group in IT consists of whites (58.9%).

Followed by Hispanic or Latino (15.2%) and Asian (12.3%).

Only 5.31% of all software developers worldwide are females.

91.7% represent male developers.

Women employment in computing-related workplaces in the US.

The percentages compared to male employments.

Share of minority groups in the tech industry in the US in 2021.

The percentage is based on the entire workforce.

Sources: Zippia, Zippia 2, Statista 18, Statista 19, BLS 3, BLS 2

What are the biggest technology sectors right now?

The current biggest technology sectors are:

• Software
• Devices and infrastructure
• Hardware
• Telecom
• IT and business services
• Telecom services
• Emerging tech

In 2021, Telecom services held the largest global IT market share at 26%.

Here is the comparison of the global and American IT market share of the same IT categories in 2021:

Top 10 trends in technology in 2022.

• Computing power
• Smart devices
• Quantum computing
• Datafication
• Artificial intelligence and machine learning
• Extended reality
• Digital trust
• 3D printing
• Genomics
• New energy solutions

Dominating technologies in 2022.

• Artificial intelligence
• Internet of things (IoT)
• Blockchain technology
• Cryptocurrency
• 5G technology
• Quantum computing
• Cloud services

Informational technology professional jobs, by sector:

There will be 38.6 billion IoT devices worldwide by 2025, according to estimations.

In 2018, there were 22 billion IoT (Internet of Things) devices worldwide.

By 2030, there could be already 50 billion such devices.

Sources: CompTIA 3, Statista 3, CompTIA 6, Forbes, Wizata, Zippia 2, Zippia 3

Tech Growth Statistics

How fast is the technology industry growing?

The technology industry is expected to grow 5.3% in 2022.

After the bumpy year of 2020, the industry is expected to grow by 5-6% per year.

Global IT growth from 2013 to 2021.

Here’s a table with the global technology growth of the industry per year:

The global IT market size reached $8.3 trillion in 2021.

It’s expected to reach $9.3 trillion in 2022, with an annual growth of a CAGR of 11.2%.

Global market size could reach $13.8 trillion in 2026 at a CAGR of 10.3%.

Sources: BDC, CompTIA 4, CompTIA 5, CompTIA 6, BRC

What are the fastest-growing technology industries?

The fastest-growing technology industries are:

• Blockchain Decentralized Finance (DeFi)
• Robotics
• Internet of things (IoT)
• Cloud computing
• Cyber security
• Nanotechnology
• Artificial intelligence (AI)
• Virtual/augmented reality (VR/AR)

Fastest growing tech sectors in 2020, by revenue.

Sources: INC, FBT, CompTIA, Deloitte

How much is the tech industry worth, per year?

The global tech industry was worth $5.2 trillion in 2021.

Out of that, the US tech industry was worth $1.6 trillion.

It’s planned to reach $5.3 trillion in 2022.

This worth is divided based on region:

The industry was worth $5.2 billion in 2020, too.

Global information technology (or IT) companies in the US spent $4.26 trillion in 2021 on various devices and data center systems.

The amount could rise to $5.3 trillion in 2022, as stated by IDC.

Sources: CompTIA 4, Zippia, Globe Newswire, Statista 22, CompTIA 4

What is the growth of jobs in technology?

Employments in IT are expected to grow 13% from 2020 to 2030.

That means at least 667,600 new jobs in IT occupations.

It’s expected IT will employ 178,000 new jobs in the US by the end of 2022.

In 2021, employers were looking for 3.6 million workers in IT occupations.

Leading tech occupations in the US in 2021 and how much they’ll grow in 2022.

Leading tech occupations in the US in 2020 and employments.

Java and SQL knowledge are the most-searched skills in the IT industry in 2022.

Python programming language ranked fourth.

(Statista 21)

Sources: BLS, CompTIA, CompTIA 7, CompTIA 2, CompTIA 8, Statista 21

Technology Use Statistics

How often is technology used?

On average, a person spends roughly 8.6 hours per day using technology.

Looking at screen time by region reveals that people use technology anywhere from 4 hours and 25 minutes per day to staggering 10 hours and 46 minutes per day.

Sources: Sleep Judge, Comparitech

What percent of the world market does technology present?

The tech market in the US represented 35% of the total world market in 2021.

The US market represented 32% of the total market in 2020.

How many tech companies are there?

There were around 585,325 technology companies in the US by the end of 2021.

Note: due to the source’s definition change, the data from 2022 isn’t directly comparable to previous data.

The biggest tech companies in the world:

1. Apple
2. Alphabet
3. Microsoft
4. Samsung Group
5. Verizon Communications
6. AT&T
7. Tencent Holdings
8. Comcast
9. Meta Platforms
10. Intel

The big four (Amazon, Apple, Alphabet, and Meta) are collectively worth $4 trillion dollars.

Sources: Zippia, CompTIA 5, CompTIA 7, CompTIA 8, CompTIA 2, Forbes 2

Internet Statistics

How many people use the internet?

Around 5.25 billion people are using the internet in 2022.

That’s over 65% of the total population.

Out of 5.25 billion, 4.65 billion represent active social media users. More on that later.

On average, 62% of men globally use the internet, compared to 57% of women.

In developed world countries, the percentage is much higher, with 89% of men using the internet compared to 88% of women.

In the least developed countries, 38% of men use the internet, compared to only 27% of women.

Most internet users come from Asia.

There are 2.8 billion Asian users, followed by 743.6 million European users.

2021 worldwide users by region:

Internet user share by region in 2022:

Share of active internet users by region:

Percentage of people who use the internet, by region.

Denmark, UAE, and Ireland have the highest internet penetration rate in the world.

99% of the population from these countries have access to the internet.

South Korea, Switzerland, and the UK have a 98% penetration rate, whereas Saudi Arabia has 97.9%.

Globally, the penetration rate is at 63%.

Most internet users come from the 15-24 age group.

Around 71% of users from that group use the internet, compared to 57% of users from other age groups.

Sources: Internet World Stats, Data Reportal, Data Reportal 2, ITU, Statista 4, Statista 5

What percentage of the world has no access to the internet?

2.9 billion people still had no access to the internet in 2021.

The number of people who don’t use the internet, by region.

Sources: ITU, Data Reportal

What is the average internet usage per day?

An average person clocks 6 hours and 58 minutes of internet screen time daily (2022 worldwide data).

Americans spend a few minutes more, averaging 7 hours and 5 minutes.

Worldwide, people spend 3 hours and 43 minutes on average per day surfing the internet using mobile phones.

They spend slightly less time on the internet using computers, 3 hours and 14 minutes.

The average time spent on the internet using a mobile device has greatly increased over almost a decade.

In Q3 2021, around 53.5% of time spent on the internet per day happened using a mobile device.

Sources: Data Reportal

How do people access the internet?

92.1% of users access the internet using a mobile phone (any).

With what devices do people access the internet?

In the US, most people access the internet using a mobile device.

They account for 83.1% of the US population.

Sources: Data Reportal, Statista 6

How many people use social media?

Currently, more than 4.65 billion people worldwide use social media.

Also check the social media addiction statistics.

The number of social media users worldwide and its growth:

Most social media users in 2022 are males between ages of 20-29.

Percentage of social media users worldwide in 2022, by region.

The global gender average for social media users is 53.9% males and 46.1% females.

Sources: Data Reportal, Data Reportal 2

Mobile Technology Statistics

How much is the mobile industry worth?

In 2021, the mobile industry sold $457.18 billion worth of smartphones.

In 2021, mobile companies sold 1.43 billion smartphones.

In 2020, the mobile industry earned $409.1 billion by selling 1.35 billion smartphones worldwide. That year, the mobile industry shipped 1.29 billion phones.

Based on predictions, the market could rise:

• Up to $484.81 billion by the end of 2022
• Up to $792.51 billion by the end of 2029 (considering a CAGR of 7.3%).

Smartphones sold per year:

Sources: FBI, Statista 7, Statista 8

How many people use a smartphone?

There were 6.26 billion mobile subscriptions worldwide in 2021.

In the next few years, the number could increase by a couple hundred million.

96.2% of the global population is using a smartphone in 2022.

96.6% use some kind of a mobile device, whereas 8.8% use a feature phone.

Sources: Ericsson, Data Reportal

What’s the average money spent on mobile tech?

The average smartphone price in Q4 2021 was $392

That’s up from $318 in 2020.

An average 5G enabled model costs $706, whereas a smartphone without it costs an average of $180.

Americans spend $81 per month on average for phone-on-a-plan, spending $972 in one year.

Businesses spent $652 per employee on average.

Depending on the organization’s size, the more the business has to spend on mobile per employee.

A 250-employee business would spend $1234 per employee, whereas a 10000-employee company would spend an average of $800 per employee.

Sources: GFK, ICSID, Insights Samsung

Crypto Statistics

How fast is the crypto industry growing?

The global crypto market was valued at $1.54 billion in 2021.

At a CAGR of 6.9%, the market will reach $2.3 billion by 2028.

In 2021, crypto users jumped by +178% from January to December.

That means a jump from 106 million users to 295 million users worldwide.

The current crypto market value is $921 million.

While that sounds a lot, it was valued at $3 billion in November 2021, which is the current highest peak after the crypto explosion at the beginning of 2021.

Sources: Crypto, CoinGecko

What is the crypto adoption rate?

The crypto adoption rate was 37.5% in the first half of 2021.

That’s a 13% higher adoption rate compared to the same time period in 2020.

Sources: Crypto

How many people use crypto?

By the end of 2021, there were 295 million cryptocurrency users.

Based on immense user growth in 2021, it’s expected to get 1 billion crypto users by the end of 2022.

Worldwide, 10.2% of the population owns some form of cryptocurrency.

In 2022, most crypto users come from Thailand, where 20.1% of people own this digital currency.

Crypto is the least popular in Russia, where only 2% of people own crypto.

In the US, 12.7% own crypto, whereas there are only 8.3% of crypto owners in the UK.

Cryptocurrencies are the most popular among men in the 25-34 age group.

Around 60% of crypto owners in December 2021 had Bitcoin.

8% had Ethereum, whereas 32% represent other cryptocurrencies.

In 2020, cryptocurrency payments were mostly used for trading (42.8%).

In the US, 43.1% of crypto went into trading.

Sources: Crypto, Data Reportal, Medium, FBI 2

Virtual Reality Statistics

How fast is VR (virtual reality) and AR (augmented reality) growing?

VR/AR segment is expected to grow at a CAGR of 177.4% from 2018 to 2023.

Global AR, VR, and MR markets reached $30.7 billion in 2022.

In 2020, the market reached $28.2 billion.

At the current technological growth, it’s expected to reach $165.3 billion by 2027 and even $250 billion by 2028.

The value of the global virtual reality market was $21.83 billion in 2021.

It’s expected to grow at a CAGR of 15% between 2022 and 2030.

There were 20.5 million shipments of VR and 9 million shipments of AR headsets in 2021.

VR/AR shipments between 2019-2023:

Sources: Statista 9, Statista 10, Vynz, GVR, Statista 11

What are the predictions on VR and AR adoption?

29.7% of US internet users will use AR by the end of 2022.

By the end of 2025, the percentage will increase to 35.5%.

Sources: eMarketer

How many people have already used VR or AR?

In 2021, there were 93.3 million AR users and 58.9 million VR users.

By the current growth, there will be 110.1 million AR and 65.9 million VR users by 2023.

In the US, there were 80.4 million AR users and 61.5 VR users in 2021.

There were more than 16.44 million installed base VR units worldwide by 2021.

People bought 6.1 million units in 2021 alone.

Sources: eMarketer 2, eMarketer, Statista 12

AI and Machine Learning Technology Statistics

How fast is the machine learning industry growing?

The machine learning industry is expected to grow at a CAGR of 38.8%.

Sources: FBI 3

What are the revenue predictions for AI and machine learning?

In 2021, the machine learning industry was valued at $15.44 billion, and it’s expected to reach $21.17 billion by the end of 2022.

By predictions, machine learning can reach a market size of $209.91 billion by 2029.

The global artificial intelligence (AI) industry was valued at $328.34 billion in 2021.

At a CAGR of 20.1%, the industry is expected to reach $387.45 billion in 2022 and $1.39 trillion by 2029.

Sources: FBI 3, FBI 4

What are the predictions about AI and machine learning tech?

86% of the US companies will adopt AI as a mainstream technology by the end of 2021.

Corporations worldwide invested $94 billion in AI.

Sources: PWC, Statista 13

E-Commerce Statistics

How fast is the e-commerce industry growing?

Global e-commerce retail sale rates have gone up from 15% in 2019 to 21% in 2021.

The current rate is 22%.

The e-commerce market size is $3.3 trillion in 2022.

If the sales rate reaches 27%, the market size will reach $5.4 trillion by 2026.

Total e-commerce sales and growth in the US from 2012 to 2021.

E-commerce US yearly sales table:

Sources: Morgan Stanley, CBRE

What percentage of retail do online sales present?

E-commerce sales accounted for 20% of total retail sales worldwide in 2021.

That’s up from 18% in 2020 and 13.6% in 2019.

Ecommerce sales represent 11.8% of total retail sales.

Between 2022 and 2023, e-commerce sales of books, music, and video will be 69.1% of total retail sales.

Likewise, e-commerce sales will be 53.2% of total retail sales in the computer and consumer electronics segment.

Sources: Statista 14, CBRE, Insider Intelligence

Ecommerce vs. other shopping methods?

Global online retail sales reached almost $5 trillion in 2021.

Based on the current trajectory, sales will reach $7 trillion by 2025.

In 2020, e-commerce sales amounted to $4.28 trillion.

Around 40% of customers make at least one purchase per week in a physical store, whereas 27% do the same online.

81% of North American gen Z buyers prefer purchasing products in-store.

73% like discovering new products in-store, whereas 65% like to try products in-store.

Consumer packaged goods retailers claim their online and in-store sales are equal.

Physical retail brings 18%, whereas online brings 19% of total revenue.

54% of shoppers are likely to view a product online and buy it later in-store.

Around 55% of shoppers view a product online to check if it’s available in the store.

Interestingly, 53% of shoppers look for a product in-store and later buy it online.

Sources: Statista 14, PWC 2, Kearney, Shopify

Tech Adoption Rates

What technology has the fastest adoption rate?

Crypto is currently the fastest adopting technology, with 80% user growth per year.

That makes it the fastest adopting tech in history.

Sources: Chaindebrief

At what rate is technology advancing?

The tech industry is growing at a 5-6% rate year over year.

The industry is on the course to exceed $5.3 trillion in 2022.

91.6% of big Fortune 1000 companies are investing in big data and AI.

2.5 quintillion bytes are created each day.

Every second, 1.7 megabytes of data is collected from every user.

As stated by Moore’s Law, transistor capacity on a microprocessor jumped from 2,300 in 1971 to 19.2 billion in 2017.

The computational capacity of supercomputers jumped from 1.3 trillion in 1998 to 4420001 trillion in 2021.

Sources: IDC, Zippia 3, Harvard

How long does it take for people to adopt new technology?

Mobile phone subscriptions have jumped dramatically from 2000 to 2020, coming from 12.04 subscriptions per 100 people to 106 subscriptions per 100 people.

The share of cellular phones in American households increased from 10% in 1994 to 96% in 2019.

Smartphone usage grew even faster, from 35% in 2011 to 81% in 2019.

Sources: Our World in Data

What do companies say about adopting new tech?

Tech companies are most likely to pursue the digital transformation of the end-user.

The spending on digital transformation will reach $1.8 trillion by the end of 2022, and it’s estimated to reach $2.8 trillion by 2025.

Sources: Statista 15, Statista 16

Emerging Tech Statistics

How fast is the emerging technology industry growing?

Emerging technology is expected to grow by 104% between 2018 and 2023.

AI is currently the fastest emerging technology, with global spending of $57 billion in 2022.

Spending is expected to grow up to $309.6 billion by 2026.

Sources: Statista 17, IDC 2, Markets and Markets

What are the main sectors in emerging technology?

The main sectors in emerging technology are:

• 5G
• Internet of things (IoT)
• Blockchain
• Biometrics
• AR/VR
• Quantum computing
• Edge Computing
• Robotics
• Artificial Intelligence

EU organizations are placing 15% of the total budget for IT into emerging tech in 2021.

Sources: IDC 3

Emerging tech predictions

More than half of the population will be exposed to the IoB (Internet of behaviors program) by the end of 2025.

The IoB studies the purchasing behavior of consumers using behavioral science, IoT, and data analysis.

AI will become much more widely used in businesses.

Businesses that are ready to invest in AI with budgets ranging from $500k to $5 million have increased by up to 55%.

Only 26% of businesses will invest less than $500k in AI.

Sources: Advsyscon, Appen

Read more:

• Technology Addiction Statistics

Conclusion

After a rough two years, the technology industry is gaining momentum again and growing at a similar rate as before the pandemic.

You can expect an increased push toward digitization, machine learning, and AI, as well as increased employment in the technology industry.

Do you feel excited about future technology? What do you think will be the next big thing in tech?

Let us know down in the comments.

Sources: Statista, Statista 2, Statista 3, Statista 4, Statista 5, Statista 6, Statista 7, Statista 8, Statista 9, Statista 10, Statista 11, Statista 12, Statista 13, Statista 14, Statista 15, Statista 16, Statista 17, Statista 18, Statista 19, Statista 20, Statista 21, Statista 22, Investopedia, CompTIA, CompTIA 2, CompTIA 3, CompTIA 4, CompTIA 5, CompTIA 6, CompTIA 7, CompTIA 8, Zippia, Zippia 2, Zippia 3, Forbes, Forbes 2, Wizata, BDC, BRC, INC, FBT, Deloitte, Globe Newswire, BLS, BLS 2, BLS 3, Sleep Judge, Comparitech, Internet World Stats, Data Reportal, Data Reportal 2, ITU, FBI, FBI 2, FBI 3, FBI 4, Ericsson, GFK, ICSID, Insights Samsung, Crypto, CoinGecko, Medium, Vynz, GVR, eMarketer, eMarketer 2, PWC, PWC 2, CBRE, Morgan Stanley, Insider Intelligence, Kearney, Shopify, Chaindebrief, IDC, IDC 2, IDC 3, Harvard, Our World in Data, Markets and Markets, Advsyscon, Appen