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Amount of Data Created Daily (2024)

by Fabio Duarte
June 13, 2024

An almost incomprehensible amount of data is created every day.

And each year, figures are growing at an ever-increasing rate.

We’ll dive into the most recent statistics and projections below.

Contents

Top Data Created Stats (Editor's Choice)

  • Approximately 402.74 million terabytes of data are created each day
  • Around 147 zettabytes of data will be generated this year
  • 181 zettabytes of data will be generated in 2025
  • Videos account for over half of internet data traffic
  • The US has over 2,700 data centers

How Much Data is Generated Every Day? 

According to the latest estimates, 402.74 million terabytes of data are created each day.

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(“Created” includes data that is newly generated, captured, copied, or consumed).

In zettabytes, that equates to around 147 zettabytes per year, around 12 zettabytes per month, 2.8 zettabytes per week, or 0.4 zettabytes every day.

To put that into perspective, this is how much data is generated per day in various units of measurement:

Unit of Measurement

Data Generated

Zettabytes

0.4

Exabytes

402.74

Petabytes

402,740

Terabytes

402.74 million

Gigabytes

402.74 billion

Megabytes

402.74 trillion

Kilobytes

402.74 quadrillion

Bytes

402.74 quintillion

Source: Statista

Data Creation Growth Projections

The amount of data generated annually has grown year-over-year since 2010.

In fact, it is estimated that 90% of the world's data was generated in the last two years alone.

In the space of 13 years, this figure has increased by an estimated 74x from just 2 zettabytes in 2010.

The 120 zettabytes generated in 2023 are expected to increase by over 150% in 2025, hitting 181 zettabytes.

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Here’s a full breakdown of how much data has been generated each year from 2010 to 2025 (estimated): 

Year

Data Generated

Change Over Previous Year

Change Over Previous Year (%)

2010

2 zettabytes

-

-

2011

5 zettabytes

↑ 3 zettabytes

↑ 150%

2012

6.5 zettabytes

↑ 1.5 zettabytes

↑ 30%

2013

9 zettabytes

↑ 2.5 zettabytes

↑ 38.46%

2014

12.5 zettabytes

↑ 3.5 zettabytes

↑ 38.89%

2015

15.5 zettabytes

↑ 3 zettabytes

↑ 24%

2016

18 zettabytes

↑ 2.5 zettabytes

↑ 16.13%

2017

26 zettabytes

↑ 8 zettabytes

↑ 44.44%

2018*

33 zettabytes

↑ 7 zettabytes

↑ 26.92%

2019*

41 zettabytes

↑ 8 zettabytes

↑ 24.24%

2020*

64.2 zettabytes

↑ 23.2 zettabytes

↑ 56.59%

2021*

79 zettabytes

↑ 14.8 zettabytes

↑ 23.05%

2022*

97 zettabytes

↑ 18 zettabytes

↑ 22.78%

2023*

120 zettabytes

↑ 23 zettabytes

↑ 23.71%

2024*

147 zettabytes

↑ 27 zettabytes

↑ 22.5%

2025*

181 zettabytes

↑ 34 zettabytes

↑ 23.13%

Source: Statista, Bernard Marr & Co.

Data Creation by Category

Video is responsible for over half (53.72%) of all global data traffic.

And social media is brimming with video content. TikTok is entirely based on videos and continues to grow its user base year-over-year.

While Facebook has evolved to the point where 51% of content shared on the platform is video-based.

Although public data related to Snapchat is limited, it is estimated that each snap sent requires 1MB, many of which are videos. 

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Together with social (12.69%) and gaming (9.86%), these three categories make up more than 3/4s (76.27%) of all internet data traffic.

Here’s a look at data traffic by category:

Category

Proportion of Internet Data Traffic

Video

53.72%

Social

12.69%

Gaming

9.86%

Web browsing

5.67%

Messaging

5.35%

Marketplace

4.54%

File sharing

3.74%

Cloud

2.73%

VPN

1.39%

Audio

0.31%

Data from April 2022 shows that almost 250 million emails are sent every minute.

Across 24 hours, that adds up to 333.22 billion emails.

Here’s a selection of other user-generated internet content stats:

Type of Media

Amount per Minute

Amount per Day

Emails sent

231.4 million

333.22 billion

Crypto purchased

90.2 million

129.89 billion

Texts sent

16 million

24.04 billion

Google searches

5.9 million

8.5 billion

Snaps shared on Snapchat

2.43 million

3.5 billion

Pieces of content shared on Facebook

1.7 million

2.45 billion

Swipes on Tinder

1.1 million

1.58 billion

Hours streamed

1 million

1.44 billion

USD spent on Amazon

443,000

637.92 million

USD sent on Venmo

437,600

630.14 million

Tweets shared on Twitter

347,200

499.97 million

Hours spent in Zoom meetings

104,600

150.62 million

USD spent on DoorDash

76,400

110.02 million

YouTube

Watching YouTube videos in 480p resolution uses upwards of 500 MB of data per hour.

While 4k YouTube videos use around 30x more.

Here’s the breakdown:

YouTube Video Quality

Data Used per Hour

Data Used per Day

480p

562.5MB

13.5GB

720p

1.86GB

44.64GB

1080p

3.04GB

72.96GB

4k

15.98GB

383.52GB

Spotify

Default Spotify settings use 2MB+ per 3-minute song.

That’s 40MB every hour. Or 960MB per day.

Netflix

Each standard definition Netflix stream uses 1GB of data per hour (24GB per day).

High-definition Netflix streams can use as much as 3GB of data each hour (72GB per day). 

And ultra HD uses 7GB per hour (168GB per day.)

Sources: Sandvine, Domo, TechJury, iNews

Data Creation by Region

The US has over 10x more data centers (5,388) than any other country.

Germany (522), the UK (517), China (449), and Canada (336) make up the rest of the top five.

Here are the top 15 nations by data centers worldwide: 

Rank

Country

Region

Number of Data Centers

1

US

North America

5,387

2

Germany

Europe

517

3

UK

Europe

513

4

China

Asia

449

5

Canada

North America

336

6

France

Europe

315

7

Australia

Oceania

308

8

Netherlands

Europe

297

9

Russia

Europe/Asia

251

10

Japan

Asia

220

11

Brazil

South America

181

12

Mexico

North America

172

13

Italy

Europe

168

14

India

Asia

152

15

Poland

Europe

144

Source: Cloudscene

Conclusion

Data generation is currently skyrocketing. 

And with every passing year, we are seeing these figures reach new highs.

If you enjoyed these stats, take a look at Key Data Science Trends and Important Computer Science Trends.