Smartphones Are Growing 4x Faster Than the Population – 1.5 Billion New Devices in 5 Years

In 2024, people worldwide bought around 260 million new smartphones. While still a huge number, this is the second-lowest annual increase in a decade and a fivefold drop from the 2017 peak. But despite this slowdown, smartphones continue to grow at an astonishing pace, far outpacing global population growth.

According to data from Stocklytics.com, the number of smartphones in use has surged by 1.5 billion over the past five years, four times more than the increase in global population.

Smartphones Could Outnumber People by 2028

Even though the smartphone market has cooled since its 2017 peak, when over a billion new devices were sold, growth remains rapid. Advances in technology, shorter upgrade cycles, and the rise of affordable smartphones in emerging markets continue to drive adoption, leaving population growth far behind.

The Global 2025 Digital Overview Report shows that in 2020, there were 5.9 billion smartphones in use, 240 million more than the previous year. Since then, the market has added an average of 361.5 million devices per year, pushing their total number to all-time highs.  As of January 2025, people worldwide used 7.42 billion smartphones, or 1.5 billion more than just five years ago. This jaw-dropping figure is even more shocking when compared to global population growth.

Since 2020, the global population has been growing by an average of 72 million per year, four times less than smartphones, reaching 8.23 billion in January 2025. That means smartphones are growing four times faster than the population, with the current gap standing at around 810 million devices. If this trend continues, smartphones could surpass the global population by the end of 2027 or early in 2028.

Over $2.3 Trillion Spent on Smartphones in Five Years

With technological advancements, shorter upgrade cycles, and a surge of affordable models on the market, it’s not just the number of devices that has skyrocketed. The market revenue also soared, with people spending head-spinning figures on new devices.

A Statista Market Insights survey shows that between 2020 and 2024, global smartphone buyers spent between $420 billion and $470 billion annually, pushing the five-year total to a staggering $2.3 trillion. To put this into perspective, that is roughly 2.7% of the global GDP.

Moreover, Statista expects global smartphone spending to continue growing in the following years. After reaching over half a trillion dollars for the first time in 2026, the annual smartphone revenue will increase by another 11% and hit over $560 billion by 2029, representing a massive $100 billion increase in just five years.