---
title: "A Third of Text Message Users Prefer Them to Voice Calls"
description: "About three-in-ten text message users prefer texting to voice calls, and young adults stand out in their use of text messaging."
date: "2011-09-19"
authors:
  - name: "Pew Research Center"
url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/2011/09/19/a-third-of-text-message-users-prefer-them-to-voice-calls/"
---

# A Third of Text Message Users Prefer Them to Voice Calls

Some 83% of American adults own cell phones and three-quarters of them (73%) send and receive text messages. The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project asked those texters in a survey how they prefer to be contacted on their cell phone and 31% said they preferred texts 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.

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).

Read the[ full report](http://pewresearch.org/pewresearch-org/internet/Reports/2011/Cell-Phone-Texting-2011.aspx?src=prc-headline) at [pewresearch.org/pewresearch-org/internet](https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/) for more background on how different demographic groups use texting.

![](https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/old-assets/publications/2101.png)