What Percentage of Email is Spam in 2023?

Email remains to be one of the busiest channels for communication worldwide.

There are around 347.3 billion emails sent daily in 2023.

A huge part of email traffic is spam messages. According to a study, for every 12.5 million spam emails sent, spammers receive one reply.

In September 2021, there were approximately 88.88 billion sent and received spam emails.

This means that spammers still generated a large amount of money.

What Percentage of Email is Spam in 2023?

In the number of emails sent and received daily, most users are already aware of receiving spam messages that include promotional messages, chain letters, adult content, scams, phishing, and malware content.

Based on a report, there were 144.76 billion daily emails worldwide in January 2021, and around 122.33 billion were spam emails.

Only 22.43 billion were legitimate emails worldwide. This means that 84.82% of all emails sent and received were spam.

The daily spam emails worldwide increased to 282.93 billion in July 2021, the highest number of daily spam from October 2020 to September 2021.

In 2021, 45.56% of email traffic worldwide was deemed spam, down by 4.81% from the previous year, and down by 34.7% ten years ago.

Let’s take a look at the share of spam emails as a percentage of email traffic worldwide from 2011 to 2021:

• In 2021, spam emails accounted for 45.56% of total email traffic worldwide
• In 2020, spam emails accounted for 50.37% of total email traffic worldwide
• In 2019, spam emails accounted for 56.51% of total email traffic worldwide
• In 2018, spam emails accounted for 52.48% of total email traffic worldwide
• In 2017, spam emails accounted for 56.63% of total email traffic worldwide
• In 2016, spam emails accounted for 58.31% of total email traffic worldwide
• In 2015, spam emails accounted for 55.28% of total email traffic worldwide
• In 2014, spam emails accounted for 66.76% of total email traffic worldwide
• In 2013, spam emails accounted for 69.60% of total email traffic worldwide
• In 2012, spam emails accounted for 72.10% of total email traffic worldwide
• In 2011, spam emails accounted for 80.26% of total email traffic worldwide

Percentage of Spam Messages on Email Traffic Worldwide

Email users receive random and unsolicited emails almost every day.

Spam emails are considered part of emails since up to 85% of all emails sent and received are spam.

In December 2021, spam emails claimed 45.37% of email traffic worldwide, up by nearly 2% from the prior month.

Here is the spam volume in the global email traffic from January to December 2021:

• Spam emails claimed 46.12% of global email traffic in January 2021
• Spam emails claimed 45.78% of global email traffic in February 2021
• Spam emails claimed 45.1% of global email traffic in March 2021
• Spam emails claimed 45.29% of global email traffic in April 2021
• Spam emails claimed 46.35% of global email traffic in May 2021
• Spam emails claimed 48.03% of global email traffic in June 2021
• Spam emails claimed 44.95% of global email traffic in July 2021
• Spam emails claimed 45.84% of global email traffic in August 2021
• Spam emails claimed 45.62% of global email traffic in September 2021
• Spam emails claimed 44.55% of global email traffic in October 2021
• Spam emails claimed 43.7% of global email traffic in November 2021
• Spam emails claimed 45.37% of global email traffic in December 2021

What Email Users Do to Stop Receiving Spam Emails?

Spam emails are unsolicited messages sent in bulk, most of the time to promote their products and services, or with malicious intent.

Many email users receiving spam emails find them annoying and a waste of time, while others find them unsafe.

More than 60% of email users use spam filters to stop receiving spam messages, while 54% choose to delete or ignore them.

Below is the list of what email users do to their spam emails to minimize or stop receiving them, according to Orbit Media:

• 63% of email users use spam filters
• 54% of email users delete or ignore spam emails
• 22% of email users mark spam messages as spam
• 13% of email users unsubscribe to their newsletters and emails
• 9% of email users block or report their email addresses
• 2% of email users create a secondary email account or change their email privacy

Origin of Spam Emails

According to Statista, Russia is the leading country of origin for spam messages in 2021.

Nearly 25% of the spam around the world originated from Russia. It is followed by Germany, the United States, and China.

Here are the top 10 countries of origin for spam emails in 2021:

1. 24.77% of spam emails worldwide originated from Russia in 2021
2. 14.12% of spam emails worldwide originated from Germany in 2021
3. 10.46% of spam emails worldwide originated from the United States in 2021
4. 8.37% of spam emails worldwide originated from China in 2021
5. 3.89% of spam emails worldwide originated from the Netherlands in 2021
6. 3.57% of spam emails worldwide originated from France in 2021
7. 3% of spam emails worldwide originated from Spain in 2021
8. 2.41% of spam emails worldwide originated from Brazil in 2021
9. 2.36% of spam emails worldwide originated from Japan in 2021
10. 1.66% of spam emails worldwide originated from Poland in 2021

Global Spam Rate

Statistics show that spam emails accounts for 55% of all emails globally from 2017 to 2018, representing a 14% down compared to the 2012 global spam rate.

Here is the email spam rate worldwide:

• Spam emails accounted for 55% of all emails worldwide in 2018 and 2017
• Spam emails accounted for 53% of all emails worldwide in 2016 and 2015
• Spam emails accounted for 60% of all emails worldwide in 2014
• Spam emails accounted for 66% of all emails worldwide in 2013
• Spam emails accounted for 69% of all emails worldwide in 2012

Conclusion

Spam emails have different types.

The most common types of spam are advertisements and marketing emails. 36% of spam emails have advertising and marketing content.

It is followed by emails with adult content, accounting for 31%.

While 26.5% of spam has financial content. 3.3% have miscellaneous content, and 2.5% are scam and fraud emails.

Phishing or identity theft comprises most of the percentage of scams and fraudulent emails. It makes up 73% of 2.5%.

The United States was the country with the most spam emails sent daily with approximately 8.61 billion as of October 2021.

While the leading country of origin for spam emails is Russia. 

Sources