Americans Hit by Over 58 Billion Robocalls in 2019, Says YouMail Robocall Index

Annual Robocall Volumes Spiked Over 22% from 2018

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Jan 15, 2020, 09:00 ET

IRVINE, Calif., Jan. 15, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- U.S. robocalls reached new highs, with an estimated 58.5 billion robocalls for the year, marking a 22% increase from the 47.8 billion robocalls recorded in 2018, and a stunning 92% increase over the 30.5 billion robocalls in 2017.

There were nearly 26 billion scam calls in 2019 (44% of all robocalls) and another 8 billion telemarketing calls (14% of all robocalls), leading to nearly 34 billion robocalls for the year, which equals over 2.8 billion scam and telemarketing calls on average each month.

Type of Robocall	Estimated 2019 Robocalls	Percentage 2019 Robocalls
Scams	25.9 billion	44%
Alerts and Reminders	13.0 billion	22%
Financial Reminders	11.4 billion	21%
Telemarketing	8.0 billion	14%

It's no wonder 2019 could be called "The Year of The Robocall", and this huge increase led to President Trump signing legislation to help reduce the volume of unwanted robocalls.

"We've now had well over 100 billion robocalls in the past two years," said YouMail CEO Alex Quilici. "It's no wonder that an anti-robocall bill passed Congress overwhelmingly and was signed by the President on December 31, 2019."

The impact of the robocall issue is best examined by looking at aggregate behavior across states.

The Robocall-a-Day Club

Perhaps the best measure of the pain of robocalls is how many each person gets on average. Two states were in the robocall-a-day club. The "winner" was Washington D.C., whose residents got nearly 600 robocalls per person, which works out to 1.6 per day. Residents of Louisiana got over one robocall per day on average, with 371 for the year. Three other states – Alabama, Nevada, and South Carolina – received 300 or more robocalls per person during 2019. On the other side of the scale, residents of Alaska got 45 per year, which is less than 1 per week.

State	Robocalls Per Person
Washington, D.C.	599
Louisiana	371
Alabama	311
Nevada	305
South Carolina	300
Tennessee	287
Georgia	281
Arkansas	256
North Carolina	245
Delaware	240
Florida	232
Virginia, Texas	209
Mississippi	203
Idaho	198
Oklahoma	194
Connecticut	190
West Virginia	184
Utah	181
Ohio	178
Arizona, Maryland	160
Missouri	159
Kentucky	156
New Jersey, Michigan	149
Colorado	148
Minnesota	147
Indiana	139
Pennsylvania	137
New York	133
California	128
Rhode Island, Illinois, Nebraska	125
Hawaii	124
New Hampshire	120
South Dakota, Kansas, North Dakota	119
Washington	109
Oregon	105
New Mexico	102
Iowa	100
Maine	99
Wisconsin, West Virginia	91
Vermont	84
Minnesota	78
Massachusetts	75
Alaska	45

The Two Billion Robocall Club

Ten states got more than 2 billion robocalls during the year, with the number of robocalls a state got generally tied to the state's population – the larger the population, the more robocalls. The top two states, Texas and California, each saw their residents suffering through more than 6 billion robocalls in 2019. Florida, Georgia, and New York each received more than 3 billion robocalls during the year, while Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Illinois each got more than 2 billion robocalls. On the other side, only 5 smaller states got fewer than 100 million calls during the year: Alaska, Vermont, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Wyoming.

State	Robocalls Received
Texas	6.64 billion
California	6.01 billion
Florida	4.44 billion
Georgia	3.56 billion
New York	3.49 billion
Ohio	2.21 billion
Pennsylvania	2.12 billion
North Carolina	2.08 billion
Illinois	2.05 billion
Tennessee	1.71 billion
Louisiana	1.67 billion
Virginia	1.56 billion
New Jersey	1.52 billion
Michigan	1.44 billion
Alabama	1.38 billion
Maryland	1.32 billion
South Carolina	1.21 billion
Arizona	1.13 billion
Missouri	0.93 billion
Indiana	0.86 billion
Colorado	0.84 billion
Washington	0.70 billion
Arkansas	0.69 billion
Oklahoma	0.67 billion
Connecticut	0.64 billion
Kentucky	0.63 billion
Massachusetts	0.62 billion
Nevada	0.61 billion
Mississippi	0.59 billion
Minnesota	0.52 billion
Wisconsin	0.52 billion
Oregon	0.43 billion
Utah	0.40 billion
District of Columbia	0.34 billion
Kansas	0.32 billion
Iowa	0.29 billion
Idaho	0.26 billion
New Mexico	0.24 billion
Nebraska	0.21 billion
Delaware	0.19 billion
West Virginia	0.16 billion
Hawaii	0.15 billion
New Hampshire	0.15 billion
Montana	0.13 billion
Rhode Island	0.13 billion
Maine	0.13 billion
Wyoming	0.09 billion
South Dakota	0.09 billion
North Dakota	0.08 billion
Vermont	0.05 billion
Alaska	0.03 billion

The Fast Climbers Club

Two states saw their robocalls jump by more than 50% in 2019 from 2018: West Virginia and Idaho. Four other states saw robocalls increase by at least 40%: Iowa, New Mexico, Wyoming, and Nebraska. Other than Alaska and South Dakota, every other state saw robocalls increase by at least 14%.

State				Percent Change
West Virginia	55%
Idaho	51%
Iowa	47%
New Mexico	44%
Wyoming	42%
Nebraska	41%
New Hampshire	38%
Montana	38%
Oklahoma, Kentucky, Kansas	37%
Tennessee, Maine, North Dakota	35%
Rhode Island, South Carolina	34%
Ohio	32%
Virginia	31%
Utah, Hawaii, Pennsylvania	30%
Massachusetts	29%
Alabama, Nevada, Arkansas, Delaware		27%
Arizona, Colorado, Texas, North Carolina			26%
Washington, Mississippi, Wisconsin, New Jersey, Michigan					24%
Louisiana, Oregon	23%
Maryland	22%
Missouri	22%
Connecticut	21%
Indiana	19%
Vermont, Minnesota, Georgia	17%
Florida	16%
Illinois, New York	15%
California	14%
South Dakota	9%
Alaska	1%

Where These Robocall Estimates Come From

These data are provided by YouMail, a free robocall blocking app for mobile phones. YouMail recently won the American Business Awards' Gold Stevie Award for Technical Innovation of the Year, and the YouMail app was named the nation's best robocall-blocking solution in a competition organized by Geoffrey Fowler of the Washington Post.

YouMail blocks unwanted robocallers by making sure the user's phone doesn't ring, and then plays an out-of-service message that leads them to think they dialed an invalid number. YouMail identifies problematic numbers and robocalls using a combination of its recently patented audio fingerprinting technology, call patterns, and consumer feedback.

YouMail provides the YouMail Robocall Index to estimate robocall volume across the country and for specific area codes every month. This estimate is formed by extrapolating from the behavior of the billions of calls YouMail has handled for its users, and these statistics are regularly cited by the FCC as a definitive source for national data trends.

For a full ranking of cities, states and area codes, as well as details on the behavior of robocallers in each area code, please see http://robocallindex.com. To listen to actual voice messages left by robocallers, please visit the YouMail Directory. To join the YouMail Robocall Index mailing list, please write to [email protected].

About YouMail, Inc.

YouMail, Inc. provides imaginative, intelligent, cloud-based telecommunication services. These include its free app-based service to block robocalls, and its premium call management services for people who use their mobile phones for business. YouMail's services free users from limitations of their mobile phone or carrier – protecting against unwanted calls, helping them handle high volumes of mobile calls, unifying virtual numbers with their cell number, and providing personalized answering experiences for their callers. YouMail has stopped over a billion robocalls, has given hundreds of millions of callers the experience they deserve, and has delighted millions of users. The YouMail Robocall Index™, since its launch in in September 2015, has emerged as the nation's definitive source on robocalling data for telecom carriers, smartphone and app companies, and public policymakers. Headquartered in Irvine, Calif., YouMail, Inc. was founded in 2007 and is privately funded.

Contact:

Rohan Notaney for YouMail
Lumina Communications
[email protected]
650-814-9651

SOURCE YouMail Inc.