

Updated · May 19, 2022
Updated · Apr 26, 2022
Internet of things (IoT) has been quite the buzzword in business and, more recently, in consumer electronics. To help understand what the hoopla is all about, TechJury has put together this latest set of internet of things statistics.
These data points cover a wide range of topics including the most up-to-date trends and numbers related to IoT, the impact it is having and is expected to have in the future in different segments, the growth drivers and the key concerns that may act as barriers, and the forecasts of the market size of IoT in various industries.
As you would note, one salient feature of predictions on IoT is that there can be wildly varying figures on the number of devices, market size, or investment across different studies.
Even a search for the answer to the seemingly simple question “How many IoT devices are there in 2022” returned remarkably different figures from reputed companies and research bodies. This makes building a coherent story difficult.
Still, even though all forecast figures might not always appear to be in perfect sync, there is a general trend that emerged after consulting enough different pieces of research. They all say we can expect much faster growth in IoT adoption rates across all sectors. In the next four to five years we will see better progress than during the whole of the last decade.
2019 was a breakthrough point, with IoT poised to have a more immediate impact on our lives than, say, robotics or AI.
That said, let's see how big IoT is in 2022.
Let's have a look at the IoT statistics in 2022 as device connectivity continues to grow.
(Source: Gartner)
There will be a 21% increase in the number of endpoints in 2020 compared to 2019's figures. Going by the last two years, 2018 had 3.96 billion, while 2019 had 4.81 billion devices.
(Source: Gartner)
According to the Internet of Things stats for 2020 predictions, utility endpoints will increase by 200 million from the year before. Think of both commercial and residential electricity smart power metering, for instance, surveillance cameras.
(Source: i-scoop)
As the number of IoT endpoints continues to grow, so does the potential of security threats. Each attack surface offers an entry point to internet criminals, which could expose entire networks to hacking.
However, there's some good news:
Some businesses and individuals are becoming more aware of the risks ahead and, hence, are adopting proper security strategies for protection. Predictions show that by 2021, spending on security measures will increase by 28% compared to 2018 ($1.5 billion).
Good IoT security practices and strategies still have a long way to go. Therefore, there's still a great need for more businesses and individuals to get on board in this area of concern.
(Source: Gartner)
Connected lighting devices in the building industry was of the critical drivers of this segment's highest growth rate in 2020. According to the Internet of things growth statistics, the industry will see 130 million more IoT endpoints compared to 2019 figures.
(Souce: Statista)
With LTE, WiFi6, and 5G expansion continuing to be a reality, wearable technology adaptation is becoming widespread. There have also been vast developments in crucial technologies like augmented reality, next-generation telepresence, and virtual reality, which has helped with the wearable technology evolution.
According to smart device statistics, the global figures will have grown by 780 million from 2016's 325 million. The smartwatch market will be the main contributor.
(Source: AppleWorld.Today)
Apple currently holds the highest smartwatch market share at 40% after shipping 12.9 million units of the Apple Watch Series 6 and SE in the fourth quarter of last year. According to IoT stats 2020, the closest competitor is Samsung with 10%.
Since unveiling the device in 2015, the company has dominated the market ever since. Apple shipped 12 million gadgets in the first year alone, instantly overtaking Samsung.
(Source: Enterra solutions)
Cities like Barcelona have already adopted smart technology, and we're likely to see more examples in the future. According to the Internet of things data for 2021, the technology for this transformation is already available. Decision-makers are very eager to integrate the resources available to improve people's lives.
So, how will IoT help in cities?
Here are a few examples:
The internet of things promises an exciting journey, making this as good a time as any to familiarize oneself with all that’s happening in this field through these carefully put together stats. Happy reading!
(Source: Business Insider, IoT Analytics, Gartner, Intel, Statista)
The number of IoT-connected devices globally reached 11.7 billion in 2020. Note that this is higher than the number of mobile devices in use in the world. With new technologies like 5G and an uptick in IoT adoption, companies’ plans to invest in IoT solutions seem to be accelerating.
Of course, estimates vary. Another study is pegging the 2025 estimate at 22 billion. Gartner’s statistics predicted 25 billion IoT devices by the end of 2021. We have also seen very high numbers cited in some other studies (e.g., 200 billion, according to Intel).
(Source: McKinsey Global Institute)
Consumers are more connected than ever, owning an average of four IoT devices that communicate with the cloud. While this presents a valid case for optimism, the consensus seems to be that the adoption rate of IoT is still very slow. Thankfully, there are a number of technological advances taking place that should speed up IoT adoption.
(Source: Statista)
While answers to the query “How many connected devices will there be in 2020?” may vary across different studies, the consensus is that consumer electronics account for the largest segment of the internet of things market. Its share of the market will remain at around 63% between 2018 and 2020.
(Source: Market Data Forecast)
That will be at a compound annual growth rate of 26.9%.
Compared to 2020, that will be a $544.4 billion increase in value.
(Source: PwC)
An internet of things market analysis in terms of where actual value comes from shows a slight dominance of hardware, which is projected to have a market value of $585B. Services will account for 27% (XaaS 12% and IT and installation services 15%), Connectivity for 22%, and Software for 16%.
(Source: PwC)
Business investment grew from $215 billion in 2015 to $832 billion in 2020, while consumer-driven spending will grow from $72 billion in 2015 to $236 billion in 2020. This represents a slightly higher growth in business spending as compared to consumer spending on IoT in the 5-year period. Government spending will add an extra $500 billion or so to the total spend on IoT in 2020.
(Source: McKinsey Global Institute)
Low-power, wide-area networks allow long-range communications among a large number of connected devices at optimized costs and power consumption rates. In 2017, only 20% of the world population was covered by this type of network. Many other advances are helping reduce costs and power requirements to help faster IoT adoption.
Another example is the cost of lidar sensors, essential for autonomous driving, which have become 10 times cheaper in the last decade and are expected to get several times cheaper still in the next few years.
(Source: Ericsson)
The ongoing large-scale deployment in China is the main factor behind the almost doubling of the forecast for the internet of things mobile market. Of the 3.5 billion cellular IoT connections, expected to be present in 2023, 2.2 billion are anticipated to be active in North East Asia.
IoT is bringing huge changes in our lives. Wait until you hear the numbers in terms of money.
(Source: McKinsey Global Institute)
The greatest contribution is expected to be from factories ($1.2 to $3.7 trillion), followed by smart cities, health care, retail, non-urban outdoor environments, custom production environments, automotive, home, and office.
(Source: Forbes, i-Scoop)
This includes a CAGR of 7.3% through 2020. Morgan Stanley predicted the industrial IoT market size reached $110 billion by 2020 and $124B in 2021.
The top drivers of IIoT growth according to Accenture, include improved operational efficiency, improved productivity, creation of new business opportunities, reduction in downtime, and optimization of asset utilization.
(Source: Statista)
B2C commerce will be spending $25 billion on IoT software and platforms within the next two years. Health care is projected to be spending $15 billion, as are process industries. The bottom line is that there’s going to be a healthy investment in IoT not just in industrial sectors that make obvious sense, but even in areas like retail and government.
(Source: IoT Analytics)
According to internet of things statistics, among Smart City projects, nearly half were ongoing in Europe, while in all other segments, the largest share was in the Americas. Smart Agriculture is one area where the APAC region has more projects than Europe and almost as many as the Americas.
(Source: IoT Analytics)
Most enterprise IoT projects focus on cost reduction. Only 35% of IoT projects are used to increase revenue (e.g., by offering new IoT-connected products and services). 24% of projects also increase overall safety (e.g., by offering enhanced monitoring systems with real-time alerts and notifications).
(Source: Ovum)
IoT statistics show that not everyone is focused on cost reduction. A more granular study of the main purpose for deploying enterprise IoT found that while cost reduction might be the priority in USA, UK, France, and Australia, in other countries the top goal cold be increasing competitiveness (China, S. Korea, Italy, Mexico), improving business processes (Germany, Japan, Brazil), or improving customer experience (Spain).
(Source: GE)
Sector-wise break-up of manufacturing shows that the reliance on IIoT applications is the highest in power and energy (64%), aviation and aerospace (62%), and utilities (58%). This survey by GE also found that investment costs are the biggest barrier to preventing faster adoption of IIoT in manufacturing.
(Source: Statista)
The highest percentage of senior execs saying this is in the technology, media, and telecommunications industries, followed by financial services and energy utilities & mining.
Internet of things statistics show that 28% execs, on average, plan to invest in IoT security in the next 12 months. The variation is much wider (33% to 54%) in response to the query whether they are “very confident” they are building sufficient digital trust controls into their IoT programs. They are the least confident when it comes to consumer markets.
(Source: Fierce Electronics)
This ‘expectations dividend’ is seen in both business efficiency and profitability. According to a worldwide survey of IT and business decision-makers, only 29% of executives expected that their IoT strategies would result in business efficiency improvements.
Actual results showed that 46% experienced gains in efficiency. Similarly, while only 16% of the business leaders projected a large increase in profits because of their IoT investment, 32% ended up with IoT-driven profit gains. IoT trends show that these business benefits are encouraging other decision-makers to mark out budgets for IoT adoption.
(Source: Fierce Electronics, Security Today)
A booming 77% of executives in the sector believe IoT technology will allow them to transform offices into a smart workplace. 59% of them use IoT for monitoring and maintenance, while 55% use it for location-based services.
Key benefits from IoT for the enterprise segment include increased IT effectiveness and an innovation boost. The most common IoT tech consists of mobile devices, energy meters, and smart appliances.
(Source: Security Today)
Some of the benefits of this adoption include increased business efficiency, greater innovation, and better visibility across the organization.
The most common IoT tech in the industrial sector includes chemical sensors, picking systems, and cranes and forklifts. Decision-makers further expect to see a reduction in operational risks and downtime. All in all, IoT inspires a lot of expectations, and somehow it still manages to exceed them.
(Source: Link Springer)
Patient monitoring is the number one use of IoT in the health care sector, followed by remote operation and control and location-based services. Executives here mention increased innovation as the top benefit from IoT, along with high numbers for organization visibility and cost savings. Energy meters, X-rays, and imaging devices also make use of IoT.
For these reasons, experts predict a $158 billion valuation of the IoMT sector in 2022, up from $41 billion in 2017. The recent COVID-19 crisis has hastened the process of hyper-growth of the industry.
(Source: Globe News Wire)
For comparison, a 2020 forecast showed the growth would be at $14.5 billion, with a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 19.6%.
If you’re wondering how IoT is used in retail, in-store IoT-based location services can deliver personalized offers and product information to shoppers. They also serve monitoring, maintenance, and even surveillance purposes.
The most common IoT technologies used in the sector are barcode readers, personal mobile devices, and building systems related to refrigeration and security. Future benefits include increased productivity, expansion into new markets, and more customer referrals.
(Source: Internet of Business)
IoT statistics showed that over 78% of government professionals reported that the implementation of machine-learning technologies is either underway or completed.
According to the same study, more than 70% of public sector agencies evaluate the potential of emerging technologies, but only about 25% are moving beyond the pilot phase to full implementation.
(Source: DataProt)
Companies are noticing the vast number of advantages that come with adopting IoT devices in their business operations.
As a result, IoT statistics show that clothing manufacturers, healthcare providers, and municipalities are investing heavily in this technology.
Governments and companies are starting to invest more and more in IoT. Here's why it makes sense.
(Source: Capgemini)
High potential use cases in telecom include monitoring of inventory, remote monitoring and management of telecom base stations, and environment monitoring for telecom equipment.
Other leading sectors are industrial manufacturing (33%; production asset maintenance, manufacturing intelligence, and product quality optimization) and consumer products (27%; manufacturing intelligence and monitoring shipment conditions).
The lowest implementation of high potential use cases across IoT market segments is seen in energy & utilities (18%) and automotive (17%).
(Source: Capgemini)
This is followed by the UK (41%) and Germany (35%). The US lead can be attributed to significant venture capital investment. According to an estimate, over two-thirds of the IoT startups funded in the 2012-2017 period were based in the US. Along with the innovation in the core IoT stack of sensors, platforms, and predictive analytics, there is a strong focus from startups on security solutions for IoT as well.
(Source: Statista)
The other toppers in IoT IP are QUALCOMM Incorporated (8,545) Intel Corporation (4,313 patents) and Ericsson (3,093). It’s obvious that the bulk of these patents are related to the telecom and consumer electronics sectors.
The top patent holders in software, automotive, and industrial sectors are also usual suspects like IBM and Microsoft; Toyota, Bosch, and Hyundai; and Honeywell, GE, Hitachi, and Mitsubishi.
The encouraging takeaway from this set of internet of things facts is that patent holdings are spread over several players with no single company or small group of companies holding the bulk of the patents.
(Source: Cowen)
Google Cloud IT (24%), Amazon AWS IoT (19%), and Cisco IoT Services (13%) are the next two most-preferred platforms. AWS was more popular with respondents from smaller organizations (28% versus 9%). Googe’s Cloud IoT is being adopted more by employees in larger companies (37% vs. 15%).
(Source: Fierce Electronics)
More importantly, many business leaders aren’t sure what IoT means for their business. This results in IoT not being implemented properly or being put to very basic uses instead of being utilized for the high potential it has to transform processes.
According to Kevin Ashton, the tech visionary who coined the term IoT, it means “sensors connected to the internet and behaving in an internet-like way by making open, ad hoc connections, sharing data freely and allowing unexpected applications, so computers can understand the world around them and become humanity’s nervous system.”
(Source: Fierce Electronics)
IoT trends show that external attacks and the increased probability of data breaches remain the greatest barriers to embracing IoT in a more comprehensive manner for most organizations.
A holistic IoT strategy that is built on strong network access control and policy management is needed when organizations are planning their IoT investment. Other major barriers to adoption include cost (50%), maintenance (44%), and integration of legacy technology (43%).
(Source: Gartner)
This will represent growth at a CAGR of 21.38%, considering that the estimation of the endpoint security solutions in IoT market size by Gartner for 2016 was at $240 million. Worldwide IoT security spending will increase from $912 million in 2016, soaring to $3.1 billion in 2021, attaining a 27.87% CAGR in the forecast period.
(Source: Fierce Electronics)
Even though 98% of organizations using IoT are extracting a mass of data from their processes, making sense of this data remains a hurdle. Well over a third (39%) of businesses are not extracting or analyzing data within corporate networks, and are thereby missing out on insights that could improve business decisions.
(Source: Gartner)
What is the future of the internet of things from the perspective of people who have to manage it? The proliferating array of new IoT networks and the sensor devices supporting them because of emerging business models and the revenue streams they represent will require CIOs to consider a wider range of aspects to ensure the smooth running of their organization’s systems. Cybersecurity, of course, will be one of the key areas of concern as the world gets more connected.
(Source: Statista)
The North American IoT market’s value will see steady year-on-year growth from a little under $300 billion in 2017. The division of market revenue by application shows the largest pie for consumer electronics in 2020, followed by transportation. The growth of the internet of things consumer electronics market in North America is predicted at a CAGR of 12.25% from $90 billion in 2017 to $180 billion in 2022.
(Source: McKinsey & Company)
Software infrastructure and applications accounted for 38% of overall IoT spending in 2020, with Solutions Services a close second with 30% of global spending. Hardware ranks third with about 20% of the overall spend, followed by Security and Connectivity.
(Source: Business Wire, Markets and Markets, Business Insider)
There were 220 million connected cars on the road in 2020, and 90% of all new cars by 2040 are expected to be connected through IoT. The automotive IoT market was valued at $15.87 billion in 2015, indicating a CAGR of 26.5% over the eight-year period.
The three areas driving growth in automotive IoT are in-vehicle communication (route information, travel times, incident reports), infotainment, and vehicle-to-vehicle communication.
(Source: Markets and Markets)
IoT statistics for the healthcare market show a projected growth at CAGR of 30.8% from 2017 when the healthcare IoT market was valued at $41.22 billion. Telemedicine was the biggest component of healthcare IoT in 2017.
The greatest growth is expected from systems and software, which include remote device management, network monitoring tools, data analytics, application security, and network security solutions. Geography-wise, the greatest growth is expected from the Asia-Pacific region.
(Source: Markets and Markets)
The IoT in the retail market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 20% from USD 14.28 billion in 2015 driven by the increase in demand because of the internet’s ubiquity, the wider use of cloud platforms, the increasing use of mobile apps, and the declining cost of sensors and RFID.
(Source: Statista)
Internet of things statistics for 2020 for the worldwide smart homes market show an estimated growth at a CAGR of 19.31% rising from $20.38 billion in 2014. Growth drivers include increasing implementation of smart speakers, home appliances, lighting control systems, home healthcare products, smart furniture, smart kitchen, and HVAC control solutions.
(Source: Markets and Markets)
An increased use of connected devices in schools and colleges, fast adoption of e-learning, and wide availability of cloud-based solutions have meant that IoT already has a fairly strong presence in the field of education across the world. In 2018, the worldwide market value of IoT in education was $4.8 billion and was expected to grow at a CAGR of 18.8% through 2023.
(Source: Markets and Markets)
IoT forecasts for the banking and financial services market predict growth at a CAGR of 52.1% from $0.17 billion in 2017. The major driving forces of the market include the increasing use of IoT devices for connected banking and the convergence of operational technology and information technology.
Within financial services, the fastest growth is expected in the insurance sector where IoT will help companies in more effectively determining insurance prices and providing services based on data gathered from smart devices. The Internet of things statistics from 2022 confirm this trend.
(Source: Markets and Markets)
The worldwide IoT in the manufacturing market was valued at $10.45 billion in 2016 and is set to grow at a CAGR of 29% through 2022. The major factors driving the growth of the IoT in the manufacturing market are the growing need for centralized monitoring and predictive maintenance of manufacturing infrastructure, the advent of the latest communication technologies, and the need for agile production and operational efficiency.
According to the Internet of things statistics, there's increasing adoption of cloud services, convergence in operational technologies (OT), and IT. Furthermore, the growing number of intelligent connected devices and cost reduction are some of the other factors supporting the overall growth of the market.
(Source: DataProt)
IoT trends indicate that the devices will generate exponentially more data in the coming years. The number is expected to reach 73.1 ZB by 2025. This number equates to a 422% increase in output from 2019 (17.3 ZB).
To put things in perspective, one zettabyte is 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes.
The Internet of Things is likely to experience exponential growth in the coming years. More companies plan to integrate the technology to manage and control data.
It's paramount to note that there may be more data breaches, as IoT expansion continues. Therefore, both individuals and companies will need to enhance their security to mitigate any attacks.
Christo Petrov
Christo knows very well how tech has revolutionized the way we live, communicate, and create value. TechJury is his way to help users find detailed, unbiased information about all aspects of technology, the glorious opportunities it presents, the threats it poses, and the ways to stay safe in the modern world.
Latest from Author
Your email address will not be published.
What we have on this page