Americans and Text Messaging

Some 83% of American adults own cell phones and three-quarters of them (73%) send and receive text messages. Text messaging users send or receive an average of 41.5 messages on a typical day, with the median user sending or receiving 10 texts daily. Cell phone owners make or receive an average of 12 calls on their cells per day. Young adults are the most avid texters by a wide margin. Cell owners between the ages of 18 and 24 exchange an average of 109.5 messages on a normal day—that works out to more than 3,200 texts per month—and the typical or median cell owner in this age group sends or receives 50 messages per day (or 1500 messages per month). About three-in-ten (31%) of all those who text said they preferred texting to talking on the phone, while 53% said they preferred a voice call to a text message. Another 14% said the contact method they prefer depends on the situation. Read More