Internet of Things Statistics 2026: Devices, Adoption, Risk

Global Internet of Things statistics now start at 22.3 billion connections at the end of 2025, per the Ericsson Mobility Report. That base is forecast to reach 47.1 billion by 2031. Most of the total sits closer to the living room than the factory floor. Short-range IoT accounts for 17.5 billion of those connections, against around 4.5 billion cellular IoT connections.

Adoption is uneven in ways a single global count hides. Eurostat data shows 70.9% of people in the EU used internet-connected devices in 2024. Business uptake lags it badly, at just 29% of EU enterprises with 10 or more employees in 2021. The rulebook shifted in the same period, and the Cyber Resilience Act’s reporting obligations applied as of 11 September 2026.

Key Takeaways

• Short-range links carry the volume, with 17.5 billion short-range connections against 4.9 billion wide-area connections at the end of 2025.
• Individual and enterprise adoption are counted on separate Eurostat surveys: 70.9% of EU individuals aged 16-74 used internet-connected devices in 2024, against 29% of EU enterprises with 10 or more employees in 2021. Different populations three years apart, so the two are not directly comparable.
• Country matters more than company size, with a 48.7-point spread between the highest and lowest EU adoption rates.
• Connected TVs dominate consumer IoT at 57.9% of EU individuals in 2024, far ahead of every home-automation category.
• Security exposure is now measured as a share of home broadband, with 4% of the world’s home internet connections compromised, over 100 million residential endpoints, per Nokia.
• Utilities rank highest among the enterprise sectors; Eurostat breaks out at around 46% of enterprises in the electricity, gas, steam, air conditioning and water supply sector.
• Growth is faster at the short-range end, at a 14% CAGR for short-range IoT against 10% for cellular IoT between 2025 and 2031.

Editor’s Choice

• Total IoT connections: 22.3 billion at the end of 2025.
• Forecast connections: 47.1 billion by 2031, a 13% CAGR.
• Largest single-country market: Statista’s Market Insights projects $420.03 billion of United States IoT revenue in 2026.
• EU individual adoption: 70.9% of individuals in 2024.
• Cellular IoT connections: around 4.5 billion at the end of 2025, per Ericsson.
• 5G subscriptions: close to 3.3 billion globally.
• Exposed residential endpoints: over 100 million available for exploits and malicious uses of bandwidth.

Global Internet of Things Statistics by Connection Type

• Total IoT connections stood at 22.3 billion in 2025 and are forecast at 47.1 billion in 2031.
• Short-range IoT grows from 17.5 billion to 38.8 billion connections across the same window.
• Wide-area IoT runs from 4.9 billion to 8.3 billion connections.
• Cellular IoT moves from around 4.5 billion to 7.8 billion connections, a subset of the wide-area figure.
• The compound growth rates split 14% for short-range, 10% for cellular and 9% for wide-area IoT.
• Net additions to 2031 total 24.8 billion connections.

Source: Ericsson Mobility Report, 2026

The composition is the part most device-count headlines skip. Short-range links outnumber cellular ones by nearly four to one in the Ericsson data. That is a market shaped by home routers, building controllers and consumer gadgets, not by industrial telematics.

About This Data

Compiled from 11 primary and institutional sources (9 Tier 1 regulator, agency, or company-published, 2 Tier 2 industry research). Publication window runs from May 2022 to June 2026. Sources qualified on primary or official publication only, with preference for the most recent edition of each series. Figures are reviewed on a rolling basis and updated when the underlying sources publish new editions.

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Which Smart Devices People Actually Use

• Internet-connected TVs were the most used IoT devices in 2024, reported by 57.9% of individuals.
• Smart wearables such as smartwatches and fitness trackers reached 29.9%.
• Game consoles came in at 19.5%, with internet-connected home audio systems at 19.3%.
• Smart speakers were used by 16.0% of people as virtual assistants.
• Home energy management systems reached 14.2%, smart home appliances 12.8% and smart home security devices 11.8%.
• The long tail stays small, with cars carrying a built-in wireless connection at 10.5%, health-related IoT devices at 7.9% and internet-connected toys at 2.3%.

The console figure lines up with the installed base in console market share data. A large slice of household IoT is entertainment hardware that nobody files under “smart home”.

Recent Developments

• September 2026: Cyber Resilience Act reporting obligations applied as of 11 September 2026, with main obligations following on 11 December 2027.
• June 2026: Ericsson reported 5G subscriptions close to 3.3 billion and mobile data traffic up 23% between Q2 2025 and Q2 2026.
• June 2026: Commercial 5G standalone network slicing offerings rose from 65 to 84 in six months, expanding the differentiated-connectivity layer IoT deployments can buy.
• March 2026: The Ericsson Mobility Report put cellular IoT at around 4.5 billion connections at the end of 2025, with 80 service providers having completely finished shutting down their 3G networks.
• November 2025: ITU estimated that 5G reaches more than half of the global population and accounts for more than one third of all mobile broadband subscriptions.
• October 2025: Nokia reported terabit-scale DDoS attacks as a daily reality, up from once every five days in 2024.

IoT Adoption Rates by Country

• The Netherlands recorded the highest share of users of internet-connected devices at 94.8%.
• Ireland and Denmark followed at 90.6% and 87.0%.
• The EU average sat at 70.9% in 2024.
• Romania and Bulgaria recorded 56.6% and 50.8%.
• Poland recorded the lowest share at 46.1%.
• The top-to-bottom spread comes to 48.7 points.

Which countries use IoT devices the most?

The Netherlands leads EU individual IoT use, per Eurostat’s survey of individuals. The Netherlands recorded 94.8%, followed by Ireland at 90.6% and Denmark at 87.0%, while Poland sat lowest at 46.1%. That leaves a 48.7-point gap between the highest and lowest adopters in a single market.

Cellular IoT and the Network Technology Shift

• Cellular IoT connections reached around 4.5 billion at the end of 2025.
• Broadband and Critical IoT accounted for around 2.6 billion connections, almost 60% of all cellular IoT connections.
• The forecast puts cellular IoT past 7 billion connections by 2030, at a CAGR of around 11%.
• Broadband and Critical IoT connections are forecast to double, reaching 4.3 billion by 2030.
• Legacy network sunsets continue, with 80 service providers having completely finished shutting down 3G and 46 having fully turned off all 2G services by the end of 2025.
• Regional concentration is extreme: North East Asia holds a share of around 70% of all cellular IoT connections.

Source: Ericsson Mobility Report, 2026

By the numbers: Cellular IoT reached around 4.5 billion connections by the end of 2025, with Broadband and Critical IoT at around 2.6 billion of that total, and North East Asia holding a share of around 70% of all cellular IoT connections, per Ericsson. Regional policy decisions there move the global number more than any Western deployment does.

Business IoT Adoption by Company Size

• Across the EU, 29% of enterprises with 10 or more employees and self-employed persons used IoT devices or systems in 2021.
• Large enterprises used IoT almost twice as much as small enterprises, at 48% against the 26% recorded by small firms, just over a quarter of them.
• Medium-sized enterprises landed between them, with nearly 2 out of 5 at 37%.
• The large-to-small gap works out at 22 points.
• Security is the dominant use case, with 72% of IoT-using enterprises deploying cameras and other devices to secure their premises.
• Energy and maintenance trail well behind, at 30% for smart meters and smart lights and 24% for condition-based maintenance sensors.

Smaller firms sit at the bottom of that distribution while carrying much of the same exposure. The same pattern runs through small business breach statistics, where budget rather than threat level is the differentiator.

IoT Use by Industry Sector

• Utilities rank highest among the sectors Eurostat breaks out, with around 46% of enterprises in the electricity, gas, steam, air conditioning and water supply sector using interconnected devices and systems.
• Accommodation reached 36%, and information and communication 34%.
• Both sat above the 29% EU all-sector average for 2021.
• Professional, scientific and technical activities recorded 25%.
• Administrative and support service activities recorded the lowest rate at 24%.
• The sector spread is narrow, at 22 points from top to bottom.

A 22-point band across every sector of the economy is a narrow one. It argues against the idea that IoT is an industrial technology with a few consumer spillovers. Every sector uses some of it, and almost none uses a lot of it.

IoT Market Size and Spending

• Statista’s Market Insights projects Industrial IoT as the dominant segment, at a market volume of $321.68 billion in 2026.
• Statista’s Market Insights projects the United States to lead the pack, generating the highest revenue of $420.03 billion in 2026.
• Statista’s Market Insights forecasts an 8.91% annual growth rate from 2026 to 2031, with the worldwide totals charted below.
• Statista’s Market Insights models the market as 7 segments and counts spending by consumers, enterprises, and governments.
• Worldwide revenue works out at $1,180 billion in 2026, according to Statista’s Market Insights projections, reaching $1,810 billion by 2031 on the same Statista’s Market Insights model.
• Scope matters here. Statista’s Market Insights models only the IoT-related portion of a product, covering the components and features that make it capable of connecting to the internet.

IoT Security: Botnets, DDoS, and Compromised Devices

• Missing patches account for 76% of vulnerabilities, per the Nokia Threat Intelligence Report.
• Attack duration collapsed, with around 78% of DDoS attacks now ending within five minutes, up from 44% in 2024.
• Faster still, around 37% of DDoS attacks wrap up in under two minutes.
• Living-off-the-land intrusions are widespread, with 63% of operators facing at least one such attack last year and 32% seeing four or more.
• Residential broadband is the reservoir: 4% of the world’s home internet connections are compromised, which is over 100 million residential endpoints available for exploits and malicious uses of bandwidth.
• Peak volumes climbed with it, as DDoS peaks in the 5 to 10 Tbps range became the new normal.

Patch hygiene is the lever with the clearest payoff. The CISA KEV catalog records which flaws attackers actively exploit, so those are where limited patching effort goes furthest. Keeping firmware current helps reduce the risk of a device joining a botnet, and it does not remove that risk for hardware past its support window.

The escalation is not confined to connected devices. Broader attack frequency data tracks the same curve across non-IoT vectors. Microsoft’s monthly patch cadence illustrates the kind of regular update rhythm that many consumer device makers are not set up to sustain.

Why it matters: Nokia’s telemetry reframes IoT risk from a device-count problem into a network-share problem. 4% of the world’s home internet connections are compromised, which is over 100 million residential endpoints. That exposure sits inside consumer broadband, not enterprise fleets. The remediation burden lands on internet providers and device makers rather than corporate security teams.

How IoT Security Rules Tightened

• The US process started early, when the FCC sought public comment on how to create the Cyber Trust Mark program in August 2023.
• Rules followed, with the FCC adopting rules establishing the framework for the program in March 2024.
• The program stayed voluntary, covering wireless consumer IoT products that meet the program’s cybersecurity standards.
• Europe moved to a mandatory model, and the Cyber Resilience Act entered into force on 10 December 2024.
• Reporting duties arrived first, as the reporting obligations applied as of 11 September 2026.
• Full compliance lands later, because the main obligations introduced by the Act apply from 11 December 2027.

Both texts are public, and the European Commission’s own Cyber Resilience Act policy page carries the dates in full.

The asymmetry is the story. One jurisdiction built a voluntary label that manufacturers may opt into, and the other wrote a mandatory duty with a fixed date attached.

A device maker selling into both markets designs to the stricter of the two. The effective global floor for connected-device security is therefore set in Brussels.

Compliance work then lands on teams that the security workforce statistics already show as short-staffed.

5G RedCap and the Next Wave of Low-Cost IoT Devices

• Commercial momentum is early but real, with 5G reduced capability commercially launched by 14 service providers across multiple global markets.
• Investment is wider than deployment, because 42 service providers in 27 countries are currently investing in 5G RedCap technology.
• The first devices are already out, since the first RedCap products were released in 2024, with more products in the testing stages.
• A cheaper tier is coming, as eRedCap is being introduced with 3GPP’s Release 18 for use cases currently served by LTE Cat 1 and Cat 1 bis.
• The specification gap is large, with eRedCap devices at a peak rate of 10 Mbps against 225 Mbps, and an optional reduced baseband bandwidth of 5 MHz against 20 MHz.
• LTE Cat-1 remains the workhorse below that, supporting 10 Mbps downlink and 5 Mbps uplink speeds.

Source: Ericsson Mobility Report, 2026

The Mobile Network Layer Underneath IoT

• 5G reached scale in 2026, with 5G subscriptions close to 3.3 billion and half of the world’s mobile data traffic carried over 5G.
• Traffic keeps compounding, rising 23% between Q2 2025 and Q2 2026.
• Fixed wireless access moved onto 5G, with around 70% of FWA service providers offering the service over 5G.
• Network slicing commercialized quickly, as commercial 5G standalone slicing offerings increased from 65 to 84 in just six months.
• The next generation is still distant, because the first commercial 6G services are anticipated to appear around 2030.
• Standalone deployment is the enabler, with mobile networks moving beyond best-effort connectivity toward intelligent, critical infrastructure.

Source: Ericsson Mobility Report June 2026

Worth noting: Commercial 5G standalone network slicing offerings rose from 65 to 84 in just six months, per the Ericsson Mobility Report of June 2026. Slicing lets a utility buy latency guarantees for metering traffic instead of sharing a best-effort pipe. The count is a better proxy for enterprise IoT readiness than raw subscription growth.

Global Connectivity Limits on IoT Growth

• Coverage is not the same as connection, and almost three-quarters of the world’s population are now online.
• A large gap remains, with 2.2 billion people still offline, most of them in low- and middle-income countries.
• 5G reach is broad but shallow, since it reaches more than half of the global population while coverage remains concentrated in high-income countries.
• Subscription share lags coverage, as 5G accounts for more than one third of all mobile broadband subscriptions.
• The commercial base is large, with mobile technologies and services generating $7.6 trillion for the global economy in 2025, equivalent to 6.4% of GDP.
• Growth is projected to continue, and the industry’s economic impact will grow to $11.3 trillion by 2030.

Source: ITU Facts and Figures 2025, GSMA Mobile Economy 2026

Offline populations cap the addressable IoT base directly, because a sensor still needs a network. That ceiling shapes the risk picture too. Connected devices cluster in the same high-income markets where the records exposed this year are counted.

How many IoT devices are there in 2026?

Global IoT connections stood at 22.3 billion at the end of 2025 on Ericsson’s count, the closest published figure to a 2026 baseline. That total splits into 17.5 billion short-range connections, 4.9 billion wide-area connections and around 4.5 billion cellular connections. Cellular IoT figures are also included in the figures for wide-area IoT, so the three lines do not sum to the total.

Counts differ between publishers because definitions differ. Ericsson counts connections rather than physical objects. A building controller and its attached sensors can register as many connections or as one device, depending on whose methodology is read. Comparing two IoT device counts without reading both definitions is the most common route to a wrong number.

Is the Internet of Things secure?

Consumer IoT security improved unevenly. Nokia’s telemetry shows 4% of the world’s home internet connections are compromised, over 100 million residential endpoints, and 76% of vulnerabilities stem from missing patches. Patching and end-of-support replacement help reduce that risk, and neither removes it.

Regulation is closing part of the gap. The Cyber Resilience Act’s reporting obligations apply as of 11 September 2026, with the main obligations applying from 11 December 2027. The FCC’s Cyber Trust Mark, by contrast, remains a voluntary cybersecurity labeling program for wireless consumer IoT products. Buyers who want a security signal before the mandatory deadline arrives have to read support-period commitments themselves.

Conclusion

The headline count of 22.3 billion IoT connections at the end of 2025 is the least interesting number on this page. Growth sits in short-range consumer and building technology. Adoption varies by 48.7 points across EU countries, and risk concentrates in residential broadband rather than industrial deployments. EU individual adoption still runs ahead of EU enterprise adoption, but the two Eurostat surveys measure different populations three years apart, so the difference is not a like-for-like gap.

The regulatory picture is the variable worth watching into next year. Cyber Resilience Act reporting obligations apply as of 11 September 2026, and the main obligations apply from 11 December 2027. The US label stays voluntary for now. Device makers, procurement teams, and security leads now have a fixed date to design against, which beats the previous decade of connected-device security guidance.