Research Summary: Whether you paid your mom back for that fast food she loaned you or received your salary as an independent contractor, you’ve likely used PayPal at some point. In fact, PayPal is the largest online payment processing service in the world, making its reach incredibly vast.
But just how big is PayPal? To find out more, we’ve gathered all of the most interesting trends and statistics about the massive company. According to our extensive research:
-
PayPal has 429 million active accounts as of March 2022.
-
19.3 billion transactions were processed on PayPal in 2021.
-
$1.2 trillion in transaction volume was processed on PayPal in 2021.
-
There are an estimated 29 million active merchant accounts on PayPal in 2022.
-
PayPal’s annual revenue reached $25.37 billion in 2021.
For further analysis, we broke down the data in the following ways:
General | Usage | Acceptance | Trends and Projections
General PayPal Statistics
With such a massive number of active users and merchants, PayPal needs to run like a well-oiled machine. To understand more about how the company runs, here are some general facts and statistics:
-
PayPal’s market share in the online payment processing industry is 43.85%.*
To put that into perspective, the second largest competitor to PayPal is Stripe, which only has a market share of 20.33% (less than half of PayPal’s market share).
-
PayPal processes an average of 41 million transactions every single day.
That’s up 20.58% from 2019, when an estimated 34 million transactions were processed daily. In part, this growth can be attributed to the increase in remote work caused by the 2020 Pandemic. With more people working remotely or as independent contractors, PayPal has become a more attractive payment method for businesses.
-
PayPal has 30,900 employees as of 2021.
This is up 16.6% from 2020, when PayPal had 26,500. Further, the number of employees in 2021 increased by 70.7% from five years ago (2016), when PayPal only had 18,100 employees.
PayPal Statistics by Usage
PayPal’s usage and user base follow specific and interesting trends. From national popularity to the average account balance, here are some insights our research uncovered:
-
22% of all online transactions in the US are through PayPal.
The internet might be vast, but many people choose to pay through PayPal when websites offer it as an option. PayPal’s widespread use on different websites makes it one of the most popular methods of completing online transitions in the US.
-
The average PayPal account balance is $485.
That’s nearly 150% (1.5x) more than the $196 kept in a physical wallet, which indicates that PayPal is seen as a trustworthy place to hold money.
-
The average user completes 45 transactions per year on PayPal as of 2021.
That’s a 12.5% increase from 2020, when the average user completed 40 transactions per year through PayPal.
Year Average transactions per user 2013 23 2014 24 2015 27 2016 31 2017 33 2018 36 2019 40 2020 40 2021 45
PayPal Statistics by Acceptance
Due to PayPal’s popularity, it’s widely accepted as a service by many countries and websites. To be more specific, here are some key facts about PayPal’s acceptance:
-
Over 16.8 million websites accept PayPal.
In fact, 712 of the top 1000 online retailers ranked in 2019 use PayPal, which is a majority of the most highly ranked sites on the internet.
-
71% of e-commerce sites in the US accept PayPal as of 2020.
The number of e-commerce sites that accept PayPal has been growing steadily over time. For example, between Q2 of 2017 and Q2 of 2019, PayPal acceptance grew from 67.3% to 69.5%, at about a percentage point each year.
-
PayPal is accepted in over 200 countries and regions around the world.
Additionally, to complement this international status, PayPal also supports 25 major currencies, from the US dollar to the Japanese yen.
PayPal Trends and Projections
It seems PayPal has only been increasing in relevancy and use over the past few years, but will these trends continue? According to our extensive research:
-
Between 2011-2021, PayPal’s annual revenue grew 4.6x larger.
In 2011, PayPal’s revenue was only $4.5 billion, but that number grew to a whopping $25.3 billion in 2021. In fact, there hasn’t been a single year within the past decade that PayPal’s revenue hasn’t grown.
Year Annual revenue 2011 $4.5B 2012 $6.0B 2013 $6.7B 2014 $8.0B 2015 $9.2B 2016 $10.8B 2017 $13.0B 2018 $15.4B 2019 $17.7B 2020 $21.4B 2021 $25.3B -
PayPal made an annual profit of $4.1 billion in 2021.
This was actually down slightly from $4.2 billion in 2020 but is nonetheless a large increase from the $800 million made in profit in 2012.
Year Annual profit 2012 $800M 2013 $900M 2014 $400M 2015 $1.2B 2016 $1.4B 2017 $1.8B 2018 $2.0B 2019 $2.4B 2020 $4.2B 2021 $4.1B -
Between 2017 and 2021, the number of transactions on PayPal increased by over 150%.
In 2017, there were approximately 7.6 billion transactions on the site, but by 2021, that number grew to 19.3 billion.
Year Total transactions 2017 7.6B 2018 9.9B 2019 12.4B 2020 15.4B 2021 19.3B -
Between 2017 and 2021, PayPal’s payment volume increased by over 177%.
In 2017, PayPal’s annual payment volume was $451 billion, a number which has since skyrocketed to $1.25 trillion as of 2021.
Year Annual payment volume 2017 $451B 2018 $578B 2019 $712B 2020 $936B 2021 $1.25T -
Between 2013 and 2021, the number of PayPal users grew by 198%.
In 2013, PayPal had 143 million users. This number has now nearly doubled to 426 users worldwide.
Year Total users 2013 143M 2014 161M 2015 179M 2016 197M 2017 227M 2018 267M 2019 305M 2020 377M 2021 426M -
PayPal is expected to have a CAGR of 18.5% within the next five years.
As the most popular online payment processing platform, PayPal is expected to see consistent and continual growth over the next few years.
PayPal Statistics FAQ
-
429 million people use PayPal as of March 2022. This is a significant increase from 2013 when only 143 million people used PayPal.
Additionally, this also represents just how big PayPal is on the market, as PayPal’s second largest competitor, Stripe (20.33% market share), only has 2 million active customers.
-
What countries cannot use PayPal?
There are 28 countries that cannot use PayPal. These countries include: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Cote D’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea), Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Haiti, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Liberia, Libya, Monaco, Moldova, Montenegro, Myanmar, Pakistan, Paraguay, Saint Lucia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Timor-Leste, Uzbekistan and Zimbabwe
While there is no singular, definitive explanation why these specific countries don’t have PayPal, common theories are that the countries have insufficient regulation and security in their banking systems, fail to comply with U.S. tax law, or currently have a U.S. trade ban in effect.
-
How many payments did PayPal process in 2021?
PayPal processed an impressive 19.3 billion transactions in 2021. In the same year, each user completed an average of 45 transactions in total, meaning that there were a lot of users using PayPal.
With these two factors put into account, it’s easy to see why the platform had over 426 million users that same year.
-
What is PayPal’s annual revenue?
PayPal’s annual revenue was $25.37 billion in 2021. This shows significant growth, as in 2011, PayPal’s revenue was only $4.5 billion. Within the decade between 2011-2021, PayPal’s annual revenue grew 4.6x larger.
Conclusion
PayPal is the largest online payment processor in the world, with a whopping 43.85% market share and 429 million active users as of 2022.
And this impressive size has led the company to become highly profitable. Last year alone, PayPal made $25.37 billion in revenue and took home $4.1 billion in profits.
If one thing has been consistent with PayPal, it’s incredible growth. From revenue to users to website acceptance, PayPal’s yearly growth has only been spurred to ramp up due to the effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic. In all likelihood, the platform will only continue to grow even more popular going forward.
References
-
GlobalData – Number of Active PayPal Accounts: Global (Q3 2015 – Q1 2022)
-
BusinessofApps – PayPal Revenue and Usage Statistics (2022)
-
Datanyze – Payment Processing Software Market Share
-
Macrotrends – PayPal Holdings: Number of Employees 2013-2022 | PYPL
-
Built With – PayPal Usage Statistics
Author
Jack Flynn is a writer for Zippia. In his professional career he’s written over 100 research papers, articles and blog posts. Some of his most popular published works include his writing about economic terms and research into job classifications. Jack received his BS from Hampshire College.
