Pew Research just looked into the texting habits of American adults and surprise: people like to text. What’s not to love, right? The fact that you don’t have to actually speak to another human being is reason enough to peck away at that keyboard. That’s not my opinion – I’m just imagining that’s what heavy texters would say…
Anyway, motivations aside, Pew found that on average, Americans over the age of 18 send and receive 41.5 texts per day. Women are a bit more text-happy than men, but not by much (42 to 40.9). As you may expect, those aged 18-29 tip the scale with an average of 87.7 texts per day. On the flip side, text messaging seniors (65 and older) only send and receive 4.7 texts on average.
And there’s not just an age discrepancy – there’s an ethnic one as well. Black texters are much more text-happy than White and Hispanic users, seeing 70.1 texts every day compared to 31.2 and 48.9, respectively.
It also turns out that poorer, less-educated users send out more texts per day on average.
Pew also found that a large majority of cell phone users use text messaging. In all, 80% of all phone owners send or receive texts. When you look demographically, you find that young people are the most prolific texters again. 97% of those surveyed between the ages of 18 and 29 are texters.
