How Much Data Is Created Every Day? [27 Powerful Stats]

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“Data is the new oil” is perhaps one of the most popular catchphrases that can describe the fuel that makes our increasingly interconnected world go round. Although such a metaphor is rather inaccurate, it captures the very essence of our collective online footprint with respect to the global economy and our digital lifestyle.

Which brings us to the following intriguing questions:

How much data is created every day, and how much data is in the world? Frankly, there are no definitive answers to these basic questions. The Googles, Amazons, and Facebooks of the world could not keep count even if they wanted to. 

Luckily, we can advance our knowledge of the data-driven world by checking out the fascinating statistics and facts below.

Big Stats and Facts About Big Data (Editor’s Choice)

  • At the beginning of 2020, the digital universe was estimated to consist of 44 zettabytes of data.
  • By 2025, approximately 463 exabytes would be created every 24 hours worldwide.
  • As of June 2019, there were more than 4.5 billion people online.
  • 80% of digital content is unavailable in nine out of every ten languages.
  • In 2019, Google processed 3.7 million queries, Facebook saw one million logins, and YouTube recorded 4.5 million videos viewed every 60 seconds.
  • Netflix’s content volume in 2019 outnumbered that of the US TV industry in 2005.
  • By 2025, there would be 75 billion Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices in the world.
  • By 2030, nine in every ten people aged six and above would be digitally active.

How Big Is Big Data?

1. As of 2013, experts believed that 90% of the world’s data was generated from 2011 to 2012.

This is still one of the most mind-blowing data stats to date. It does justice to the explosion of data growth in a blink of an eye since the beginning of the Information Age.

Sources: ScienceDaily & TechTarget

2. In 2018, more than 2.5 quintillion bytes of data were created every day.

It was the year when Americans used over 3.1 million gigabytes of internet data and 1.25 new bitcoins were “minted” every minute.

Source: Social Media Today

3. The amount of data in the world was estimated to be 44 zettabytes at the dawn of 2020.

To put things into perspective, a zettabyte is 1,000 bytes to the seventh power. In other words, one zettabyte has 21 zeroes.

Such an insane number was attainable only by adding up the total amount of data generated each day by social media sites, financial institutions, medical facilities, shopping platforms, automakers, and others.

Source: World Economic Forum

4. At the beginning of 2020, the number of bytes in the digital universe was 40 times more than the number of stars in the observable universe. 

The exponential growth of big data still does not compare to the Big Bang, but it is spectacular. How much data is produced every day in 2019? Read the statistic above again, and let it sink in for a minute.

Source: World Economic Forum

5. By 2025, the amount of data generated each day is expected to reach 463 exabytes globally.

An exabyte is 1,000 bytes to the sixth power. Good luck doing the math to figure out and wrap your head around the overall amount of data on the internet that would be created five years from now.

Source: World Economic Forum

6. Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Amazon are custodians of at least 1,200 petabytes of people’s information.

Some of them could acquire more global data created daily as they branch out. For instance, Facebook wants to establish a new financial world order with the launch of Libra, a stablecoin-based payment network.

In the event that the social media titan’s plan comes to fruition, it could rival the power of central banks. Facebook could then exercise some monetary policies as it sees fit in order to manipulate and stabilize the value of its own cryptocurrency.

Sources: Science Focus & CCN.com

How Much Data Is Created Every Day - apps

Who Are the Biggest Data Generators?

7. As of June 2019, there were over 4.5 billion internet users in the world. 

In other words, nearly 60% of all the people on the planet at that time were digitally active. The internet penetration rates in North America and Europe were both almost 90%, but the largest group of people on the Web came from Asia, even though only 50.7% of all Asians have gone online! Africa, the planet’s second-most-populous continent, has been exhibiting the fastest growth, with a penetration rate of 11,481% from 2000 to 2019.

With these statistics in mind, it is no wonder why the amount of data being created daily is getting harder to comprehend.

Source: Internet World Stats

8. 80% of online content is available in just one-tenth of all languages.

One of the many reasons why billions of people are still offline is that they struggle to find content they can understand to begin with. As a result, the generation of data on the internet has not been as big as it should be.

Source: World Economic Forum

9. Google handles a staggering 1.2 trillion searches every year.

So, how much data does Google process every day? Research stats show that it is more or less 3.5 billion queries every 24 hours. Although the leading search engine seems invincible at this point, it is surprisingly not peerless. Amazon’s ad revenue share in the US is poised to reach 15.9% by 2021 at the expense of Google.

Sources: Internet Live Stats & CNBC

10. Despite processing just 6.2% of all searches in the US, Bing makes almost $5 billion in ad revenues.

This is nearly three times Twitter’s advertising profit.

While making a dent on the amount of data generated by Google daily is still a pipedream, Microsoft’s search engine has yet to fade into oblivion. Apple devices may have switched back to Google, but Bing has been the default search engine of most internet properties and pieces of hardware the market leader could not control.

Bing’s story underscores the eye-popping monetary value of data generated daily in the eyes of marketers.

Sources: Bloomberg & StatCounter GlobalStats

11. The number of apps downloaded from Google Play Store and App Store every 60 seconds in 2019 jumped to 390,030 from 375,000 only in 2018.

This stat shows the sources of digital data generated each day continue to multiply. Additionally, app user segmentation is becoming more pronounced, and the lives of app developers and mobile marketers are getting much harder.

Source: Visual Capitalist

12. The world spends almost $1 billion per minute on commodities on the Internet.

This telling statistic demonstrates how much data is created every day without further explanation. A buyer’s online journey,  from initial site visit to purchase, is typically well documented.

Source: Visual Capitalist

13. In 2019, the number of emails sent every minute was 188 million.

The figure was an improvement from 2018 when 181 million emails were sent every 60 seconds. While it is still an indicator of information growth, it is evident that this part of the Web is nearing a plateau.

Source: Visual Capitalist

14. Last year, Google tallied 3.7 million queries, Facebook had one million logins, and YouTube saw 4.5 million videos viewed every minute.

All of these figures were higher than the year prior, but the increases were not that significant. Despite not having any shortage of fresh data generated every day, such platforms were probably close to their peak in terms of usage.

These online brands may seem untouchable, but no one is safe in the adapt-or-perish world of the internet. Even they have to continue evolving to keep growing if they are to consistently record a higher amount of data generated every day over time.

Source: Visual Capitalist

15. In 2019, nearly 695,000 hours’ worth of Netflix content was watched per minute across the world.

The number was just 266,000 in 2018. This stat represents the intensifying love of internet users for media streaming. Considering the rise of the company’s share of the total amount of data in the world in 2019, Netflix has further cemented its position as a force to be reckoned with in Hollywood.

Source: Visual Capitalist

16. Netflix released almost 55% more originals in 2019 than it did in 2018.

In the hope of preserving its market share and seeing more data created every day, the streaming-giant-cum-video-production-company added an amazing 371 new movies and TV shows to its vast content collection—excluding children’s shows and films with short theatrical runs. As a matter of fact, Netflix’s 2019 content output beat that of the entire US TV industry in 2005.

Sources: Variety

17. As of May 2019, 500 hours of video were uploaded to YouTube every minute.

So, how much content is created every day? The simplest answer is countless, as everybody can be a content creator these days and financially succeed as a reviewer, analyst, actor, or any other profession on YouTube.

Source: Statista

18. Four petabytes is the estimated amount of new data being generated by Facebook daily.

Instagram’s parent company is still growing on its own. In fact, its number of active users has been on an upward trend since Q1 2011. As of Q3 2019, more than 1.6 billion people logged in on the most popular social networking site every 24 hours. It is safe to presume that the amount of data created on Facebook every day will not go down any time soon.

Source: Facebook Research & Statista

19. Every 24 hours, 500 million tweets are tweeted on Twitter.

Despite the microblogging site’s character limit, that number still translates to an enormous amount of big data generated daily. Twitter may have not seen a steady rise of monthly active users of late, but the service is still America’s favorite social media outside the Facebook-owned brands.

Sources: Internet Live Stats & Statista

20. Snaps created on Snapchat fell from 2.4 million per minute in 2018 to 2.1 million in 2019.

The multimedia messaging app had a disappointing year, probably due to its criticized redesign. Moreover, Snapchat usage in the US is projected not to recover in the coming years. Still, the platform could bounce back and increase its amount of data being generated daily per person if it could attract more users beyond North America.

Sources: Visual Capitalist & Social Media Today

21. More than 347,222 users were scrolling Instagram every 60 seconds in 2019.

Snapchat’s loss was Instagram’s gain. The photo- and video-sharing social networking service had a big year. In 2018, just 174,000 people were using the app per minute. Such a feat helped boost Facebook’s data production daily.

Source: Visual Capitalist & Social Media Today

22. 18.1 million text messages were sent every minute through LINE last year.

Such a figure means that the amount of text data created every day hardly increased from 2018, when the app processed 18 million messages.

Source: Visual Capitalist

23. Game streaming has become a global phenomenon, attracting over one billion internet users.

As of January 2019, 30% of internet users played games streamed live online, 23% watched live streams of other games, and 16% watched esports tournaments every month. The amount of data generated daily by passive and active gaming enthusiasts has become gold to developers.

Source: DataReportal

24. As of January 2019, more than 26% of the US population owned a smart speaker.

The smart speaker ownership in America grew by over 40% from the prior 12-month period. Although the country is still not considered among the most “connected” nations in the world, the daily US data production will steadily grow as more and more Americans warm to IoT devices.

Sources: TechCrunch & TimesTravel

How Much Data Is Created Every Day - photo

What Factors Will Accelerate Data Generation Further?

25. 5G can elevate data transmission speed by up to 100 times and reduce latency from about 20 milliseconds to one millisecond.

In a future where the adoption of 5G cellular connection is pervasive, the amount of data that could be produced daily is nothing short of unfathomable. Imagine how much content you could consume if you can download an entire season of a TV series in less than a minute.

Right now, 5.6 gigabytes is the average amount of data used per month worldwide. But the arrival of 5G technology has already driven up smartphone data usage dramatically in areas where it is available.

As of June 2019, the average 5G customer in South Korea used 24GB a month. Such data usage is more than twice what typical 4G subscribers consume. Faster internet speeds will almost certainly cause the amount of data created daily to skyrocket.

Sources: CNET, Statista, & Light Reading

26. By 2025, there will be 75 billion IoT devices.

Presently, there are just more than 26 billion. In 2019, about 180 smart speakers were being shipped every 60 minutes. In 2018, just 67 voice-first devices were. The trend is going to persist.

If you can’t work out how much data is created every day now, you better learn about and get used to zettabytes and yottabytes. The proliferation of IoT products will flood the digital universe with pieces of data never been available before.

Compared to the current data generated each day, more frequent conversations between pieces of connected hardware will form colossal mountains and deep seas of insightful information since IoT devices automatically produce digital footprint.

Sources: FinancesOnline & Visual Capitalist

27. By 2030, 90% of people at least six years old on the planet will be online.

With the aid of 5G networks and IoT devices, worldwide internet penetration will continue to surge. One estimation has revealed that, as of January 2019, more than one million new people came online every day, which was a historic first. Naturally, it translated to a greater amount of data generated daily.

Sources: Cybersecurity Ventures & Data Reportal

Final Word

Knowing how much data is created every day means nothing if we do not know how to use it strategically. Like oil, data itself has little intrinsic value. Rather, what really matters is the actionable insights that can be gleaned from the information. 

Now that we have developed technologies for generating big data, we must focus our attention on fine-tuning the methods that can extract value from it in order to solve our most pressing global problems.

Sources: