59+ Telegram Statistics: Fascinating Data Behind the App Boom

This year, Telegram has seen a boom in popularity. In case you haven’t heard of Telegram, it’s a messaging app like WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger.

Generally speaking, Telegram has become a favorite because it’s free and has an airtight privacy policy. Many consider the app revolutionary because it’s 100% focused on the user: not only does Telegram have encrypted calls and messages, but it doesn’t run ads and is committed to staying free forever. 

In fact, earlier this year, many WhatsApp users flocked to Telegram to take advantage of its strong privacy measures. Users were fed up with WhatsApp because of changes to its privacy policy that involved data sharing with Facebook. 

For these reasons, Telegram saw a 100 million user boom this year and is poised to become even more popular as users get frustrated with competitors.

To better understand Telegram’s growth, let’s go over the latest Telegram statistics.

Top Telegram Statistics

It’s clear: Telegram has seen huge growth this year.

To put it in perspective, Telegram has reached the following milestones:

• 700 million monthly active users
• 9.03% of the world population is an active Telegram user (up from 8.7% in 2021)
• Telegram users are now expected to reach 1 billion users between 2023 and 2024
• Telegram has a $30 billion valuation, as of January 2021

This year’s growth rate has been particularly high, with a 25% year-over-year increase.

Just like past years, Telegram is steadily winning over active users:

Total Number of Active Telegram Users by Year

2014	50 million
2015	60 million
2016	100 million
2017	180 million
2018	200 million
2019	300 million
2020	400 million
2021	500 million
2022	700 million

Statistics for Telegram Usage

Source: We Are Social

• Telegram is ranked #11 in the world’s most used social platforms. 
• In January 2021, it was ranked #1 downloaded app in the World with 63 million installs (which is 3.8x more compared to January 2020).
• It was ranked #9 downloaded app overall (by lifetime number of downloads).

Statistics for Active Telegram Users

Even though Telegram doesn’t reach the same usage as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger or WeChat yet, it’s building in popularity.

Here are some numbers to give a picture of its active user base:

• 500 million monthly active users.
• 55.2 million daily active users.
• 100 million new users joined Telegram in January 2021.
• 1.5 million new users join every day (according to a 2020 official Telegram report).
• 15 billion daily messages sent (according to a 2016 Telegram report).
• Average Telegram user sends 150 messages per day. 

Statistics for User Behavior on Telegram

Moreover, Telegram’s user behavior is interesting to look at.

Here are some statistics about how users take advantage of Telegram.

Source: We Are Social

• Average time per user is 2.9 hours/month. 
• Users demographics include 41.4% female users and 58.6% male users.
• 85% of Telegram users have Android devices.

Telegram Popularity by Country

Source: SimilarWeb

Depending on location, Telegram ranges in popularity worldwide. In fact, there are nine countries where Telegram is the #1 messaging app, including:

• Azerbaijan
• Belarus
• Cambodia
• Egypt
• Kazakhstan
• Kyrgyzstan
• Lithuania
• Moldova
• Venezuela

Remember that Telegram still has high penetration in other countries as well.

Russia has the highest penetration at 36%. Some statistics about Russia as a Telegram leader include:

• 30 million active users in Russia. 
• 5.6 million unique downloads between January – March 2021.
• 7.5% of worldwide Telegram user base.

In addition to Russia, other countries have high Telegram penetration, including Italy and Spain. Some highlights include:

Source: SimilarWeb

• Italy has a 32% and Spain a 25% Telegram penetration rate.
• Italy has 9 million monthly active users and Spain 6.5 million, as of January – March 2021.

To wrap up, other figures about Telegram worldwide include:

• In 2021, 38% of users are from Asia, 27% are from Europe, 21% from Latin America and 8% from MENA.
• Telegram installs were the highest in January 2021 for India at 24%, followed by Indonesia at 10%.
• Telegram was the most downloaded social media app in 20 countries in 2020. 
• Just 1.4% of American users were using this app (according to 2018 report). 
• In Brazil, 29.4% of social media users use Telegram. 
• 18 million users currently have Telegram in Uzbekistan.
• Lifetime installs in Hong Kong have increased to 1.7 million.

Statistics for Telegram Features

Finally, there are some interesting statistics about Telegram’s features, such as:

• 20,000 stickers are available. 
• 13 languages are available.
• $0 spent on advertising. 

Some popular Telegram channels include Telegram Tips at 6.7 million followers, Bollywood HD Movies at 4.1 million followers and Bitcoin News at 2.5 million followers. 

What’s more, Telegram channels are also quite popular with politicians.

Here’s a list of leaders with high numbers of followers on Telegram:

Source: Backlinko

Final Takeaway

At this rate, Telegram will continue to rise as a messenger app. With its commitment to privacy and user experience, it’s no wonder users are keen on switching to Telegram. 

As Telegram keeps growing, we’ll get even more amazing statistics about this messenger app. We’ll keep an eye on it! 

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