25+ Mobile Photography Trends, Statistics & Facts [2024]

Smartphones can’t rival professional DSLR or mirrorless cameras in low light, macro, and bokeh quality.

But—

Their advanced image processing has already outperformed most point-and-shoots. 

So, at Passport Photo Online, we’ve decided to compile a list of mobile photography statistics to help you understand the state of smartphone photography and where it’s headed.

Let’s make a start.

Top Mobile Photography Statistics (Editor’s Picks)

• By 2025, users are forecast to take over 2T smartphone photos every year.
• On average, Americans take pictures with their phones six times a day.
• Smartphone users have roughly 2,795 photos in their camera roll. 
• Approximately 92M selfies are taken daily worldwide.

Smartphone Market Trends and User Statistics

• By 2024, the global smartphone user count will reach an estimated 7.4B, with an expected increase to nearly 7.5B by the end of 2025.
• Global camera shipments from CIPA (Camera & Imaging Products Association) members plummeted from over 115M in 2011 to 8M in 2022.
• Nearly 86% of Americans take into consideration camera quality when getting a new smartphone.

• The most popular image-sharing platforms are WhatsApp (6.9B pictures shared daily), Snapchat (3.8B), and Facebook (2.1B).

Technological Innovations in Smartphones

• In 2023, the Motorola Edge 30 Ultra was the first smartphone to feature a 200MP camera.
• Launched in 2023, Google’s Pixel 8 pioneered AI photo-editing features, enabling its owners to add or remove elements from their pictures.
• More than six in 10 professional photographers (64%) use smartphones for over half their personal photos. Yet, 64% of them shun them for professional work.
• Remini is the top photo-editing app in the US by the number of downloads, followed by Canva, PicsArt, and AI Mirror.

Smartphone Usage Patterns and Preferences

• People took seven times more photos (over 8.6T) during the rise of smartphones in the 2010s than in the previous decade.
• Most people (91%) take photos with smartphones vs. digital cameras (7%) or tablets (3%). That percentage is expected to grow from 91% in 2022 to 94% in 2026.
• In 2022, 1.72T photos were taken with smartphones, an 8.3% increase from 2021.
• In 2023, about 54,400 photos were taken every second.
• By 2025, users are forecast to take over 2T smartphone photos every year.
• On average, Americans take photos with their phones six times a day.
• Smartphone users have roughly 2,795 photos in their camera roll. 
• US adults’ camera rolls mainly include group photos of friends (66%) and family (69%), plus shots of friends (63%) and family (58%). Selfies (58%), pet photos (52%), and scenic images (43%) are common too.
• A significant 80% of US travelers say photo-taking is their most-used smartphone function.
• Nearly half (43%) of Americans frequently use editing apps on photos before sharing them.

• About 50% of people take between one and four selfies daily.
• Approximately 92M selfies are taken daily worldwide.
• Europeans take an average of 597 selfies yearly.
• During a month-long vacation, people will typically spend at least 3.5 hours taking selfies.
• Among 18 to 24-year-olds, one in every three photos captured is a selfie.
• With Millennials spending over four hours daily on social media, it’s estimated they’ll take around 25,700 selfies in their lifetime.
• About 86% of photographers favor iPhones for non-professional photography over Android smartphones.

Stacking It All Up

There you have it.

A comprehensive list of mobile photography statistics.

If you believe your audience will be interested in any of the information we’ve provided, feel free to share it. Just remember to link back to this page as a credit to our work.

FAQ

Sources

• BBC, “Brighter, Steadier, Smarter: How Smartphone Cameras Will Improve”
• Digital Photography Review, “Study: Smartphone Camera Use on the Rise among Pro Photographers”
• Interesting Engineering, “Selfie Taking Is On the Rise in Europe”
• Moto Smartphones, “Highest Megapixel Camera Phone in 2023”
• Mylio, “How Many Photos Will be Taken in 2020?”
• Passport Photo Online, “Smartphone Use On Vacation”
• PetaPixel, “Almost All Photos Are Now Taken On Smartphones, according to Study”
• Rise Above Research, “2022 Worldwide Image Capture Forecast: 2021 – 2026”
• Statista, “Cipa Companies’ Shipments of Digital Still Cameras Worldwide from 1999 to 2022”
• Statista, “Do Pro Photographers Use Camera Phones?”
• Statista, “Leading Photo and Video Editor Apps in the United States in July 2023, by Downloads”
• Statista, “Smartphone Users Have a Soft Spot for Photo Editing Apps”
• Statista, “Smartphones Wipe Out 40 Years of Camera Industry Growth”
• Sur in English, “This Is How Much Time, on Average, We Spend Taking Selfies on Holiday…”
• SWNS Digital, “Average American Takes This Many Photos a Day”
• The New York Times, “Smartphone Photos Are Getting Faker. Uh-Oh?”
• The Radicati Group, “Mobile Statistics Report, 2021–2025”

Max Woolf

As a Digital PR specialist and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), Max has 5+ years of writing experience.
Over the course of his career, Max’s work has garnered significant attention, with features in numerous prominent publications such as The New York Times, Forbes, Inc., Business Insider, Fast Company, Entrepreneur, BBC, TechRepublic, Glassdoor, and G2.