102 eLearning Statistics for 2021 All Edupreneurs Need to Know

You don’t have to spend hours searching Google for useful eLearning statistics. The big picture of the online learning industry in snapshot form is right here.

In 2022, global eLearning market revenues are projected to top $243 billion. And edupreneurs, corporations, and academic institutions are all climbing on board.

But how do you stand out from the crowd?

Discover the trends that are driving eLearning’s explosive growth. See what eLearners have done in the past. Gain insights into what they’re most likely to do in the future.

Here are the latest eLearning statistics that will help you earn more money in 2021 and beyond.

Global eLearning Statistics

In order to find your window of opportunity, you need a worldwide perspective. Here’s where — and how fast — eLearning is growing.

1. By 2026, global eLearning revenues are expected to surpass $370 billion.
2. The leading countries in the eLearning industry are:

• United States
• India
• China
• South Korea
• United Kingdom
• Côte D’Ivoire

1. Germany has the highest eLearning market share in Europe.
2. The Asia-Pacific eLearning market is expected to exceed $90 billion in 2026, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11% in 2020-2026.
3. The eLearning market in India is forecasted to increase by $14.33 billion during 2020-2024, at a CAGR of 21%.
4. Australia’s eLearning market size, valued at $7.9 billion, is expected to grow by 8.2 percent in 2021.
5. Highest ELearning Rates on a Yearly Basis:

• Asia — 17.3%
• Eastern Europe — 16.9%
• Africa — 15.2%
• Latin America — 14.6%

1. The Asia-Pacific LMS market is anticipated to register a CAGR of 19.17% from 2018-2021.
2. Several technologies will drive eLearning market growth through 2027:

• Artificial Intelligence (AI)
• Virtual Reality (VR)
• Cloud-based LMS platform

1. AI-powered Learning Experience Platforms (LXPs), the next level in learning management systems, has passed the $350 million mark.
2. About 2,642,158 students took only an online class in 2020.

Corporate eLearning Statistics

Companies of all sizes and shapes use an online learning platform. What’s missing is personalized employee training — tailored content geared towards employee engagement and learning style.

1. How much do companies spend on eLearning? The global corporate remote learning market is on track to grow by $38.09 billion during 2020-2024.
2. By 2026, that number is expected to reach $49.87 billion.
3. Every dollar that IBM invested in online training resulted in $30 worth of productivity.
4. Over 90% of organizations offer eLearning.
5. eLearning increases knowledge retention rates by 25-60 percent, while face-to-face retention rates are 8-10%.
6. 94% of employees would stay at a company longer if it invested in their careers.
7. eLearning enables employees to learn 5 times more material for every hour of training.
8. 68% of employees prefer to learn at work.
9. The #1 reason employees feel held back from learning is because they don’t have the time.
10. To stay current with industry best practices, the average employee needs to dedicate 24 minutes a week to training.
11. The #1 challenge for talent developers is getting employees to make time for learning.
12. The #2 challenge for talent developers is getting managers involved in employee learning.
13. 56% of employees would take a manager-suggested course.
14. 85% of employees are not engaged or actively disengaged at work.
15. 49% of workers say they are feeling at least somewhat burned out.
16. Employee burnout reached an all-time high in August 2020.
17. By 2025, millennials will make up 75% of the workforce.

K-12 eLearning Statistics

Online learning statistics versus traditional learning reveal a widening socioeconomic divide. Engaging students from diverse backgrounds is a never-ending challenge.

1. The global academic eLearning market will grow by $72.41 billion during 2020-2024.
2. The K-12 education market in China is forecasted to grow at a CAGR of 19.28% during 2017-2021.
3. 63% of U.S. high school students use digital learning tools at school to learn every day, compared to 45% of elementary students (third grade or above).
4. 55% of U.S. high school students use digital learning tools outside of school to learn daily.
5. 84% of teachers say that they are able to choose some of their own digital learning tools in their classes.
6. Only 60% of U.S. teachers believe digital learning tools encourage communication and collaboration between students with special needs and their peers.
7. 85% of teachers in the U.S. reported that the most common use of digital learning tools is to enable students to practice something learned (e.g., through exercises).
8. 65% of faculty worldwide supports the use of OERs (Open Educational Resources in the public domain or licensed for free use) in teaching.
9. Students without internet access and a computer are more likely to have a lower grade point average.
10. Nearly 25% of 15-year-olds in the U.S. from disadvantaged backgrounds have no computer to use.
11. 95% of students in Switzerland, Norway, and Austria have a computer to use for their schoolwork. Only 34% of students in Indonesia do.
12. 49% of 6th-12th grade students say they wish the digital learning tool they use most often at school could be more fun.
13. 45% of elementary students say one of their favorite ways to learn is playing digital games and watching online videos.
14. Integration of games, especially among younger students, results in higher engagement and increased motivation toward learning.

Postsecondary Education Learning Statistics

To students who are deciding which college to attend, affordability and reputation have always been critical factors. But now cutting-edge technology is essential.

1. About 3.45 million college students were enrolled exclusively in an eLearning course through postsecondary institutions in the U.S. in 2019.
2. A further 3.86 million were enrolled in at least one distance education course.
3. Education is one of the least digitized and most people-intensive economic sectors.
4. In the first half of 2020, venture capitalists invested $4.5 billion in global edtech.
5. Over $87 billion will be invested in edtech over the next 10 years.
6. Many universities are beginning to deploy blended and fully AI-based chatbots to support students and answer questions.
7. Georgia Tech pioneered the use of an AI-based teaching assistant in its online degree programs.
8. New online learning programs include physical and data sciences, social justice, and the ethics and rules surrounding media and data consumption.
9. 50 percent of undergraduate students and 52 percent of graduate students studying online are female.
10. About half of online college students are aged 28-38. About one-third are aged 39-54. The remainder is split between students ages 55-73 and 18-22.
11. In some academic disciplines, such as nursing and criminal justice, more than half of all students pursuing master’s degrees do so online.
12. 41% of graduate students reported that they found their online college-level virtual classroom to be better than their experiences in college-level traditional classroom learning.
13. Some elite institutions — such as Princeton University — have substantially discounted tuition for their fully online experience.
14. Higher education institutions are starting to implement VR and AR (Augmented Reality) into their programs.
15. Colleges and universities are moving beyond bachelor’s degrees toward lower-priced “credentialized packages” that focus on industry-specific skills.
16. Over 2500 colleges offer online programs, but the 100 largest players have nearly 50% of student enrollment.

Online Course & MOOC Learning Statistics

MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) are pre-recorded content/lectures with open-ended, self-paced distance learning.

1. The global MOOC market, valued at $6845.4 million in 2020, is expected to grow to 18925.18 million in 2026, at a CAGR of 18.13%.
2. In 2020, North America held the highest share of the MOOC market.
3. The growth of MOOC participation has been concentrated almost entirely in the world’s most affluent countries.
4. The Asia-Pacific is growing at the highest CAGR over 2021-2026.
5. The major companies in the MOOC market are:

• Canvas Networks
• edX
• Udacity
• Coursera
• Udemy

1. One-third of the learners that ever registered on a MOOC platform joined in 2020.
2. Coursera’s user base increased by 66% in 2020.
3. 22 of the top 25 U.S. universities offer online courses for free.
4. 77% of online students enroll in their programs to help them reach career and employment goals.
5. Employers are increasingly subscribing to MOOC course libraries for corporate learning and development.
6. 79% of online education programs in the U.S. are aimed at adult students returning to school after an absence.
7. At least 6 million U.S. students have taken online university courses for professional training and certification preparation.
8. The vast majority of MOOC learners do not return after the first year.
9. The CAGR for 2016-2021 for self-paced online learning courses is a negative -6.4%.

Microlearning Statistics

Microlearning is bite-sized, interactive learning that lasts anywhere from a few seconds up to 15 minutes. It can yield instant ROI and measurement.

1. Mobile learning will become the microlearning mode of choice by 2025.
2. The worldwide mobile learning market is forecasted to reach over $78.5 billion by 2025. The U.S. will maintain a 21.9% growth momentum.
3. China is expected to add approximately $13.9 billion by 2022.
4. Germany will add $2.6 billion in the next 5-6 years.
5. The mobile learning market worldwide will grow by a projected $57.7 billion by 2027.
6. 72.6% of internet users worldwide will access the web solely by using their smartphones by 2025.
7. Most smartphone use growth will come from China, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Pakistan.
8. Millennials and Gen Z — the largest group currently in the workforce — prefer microlearning to all other types of training.
9. Microlearning speeds up the learning process overall because students avoid mental fatigue.
10. Microlearning is ideally suited for:

• Onboarding
• Policy/compliance training
• Software training
• Motivational bytes
• Business processes

1. Humans retain more information when learning is spread out over time (1 day, 2 days, etc.).
2. By using spaced repetition, humans remember about 80% of what they learn after 60 days.
3. If new information isn’t applied, humans forget about 75% of it after just six days.
4. Microlearning can be combined with gamification to create mini-games where a learner earns badges and rewards.
5. The collection of data in mobile learning does not take a lot of time and resources.
6. Many courses and programs are now being built for the mobile experience first, then transitioning to a desktop user experience.

Covid-19 eLearning Statistics

The statistics of online learning during COVID-19 show that the way students learn needs drastic change. While working remotely offers flexibility and cost savings in the business world, the downside is social isolation.

The solution? A blended learning approach that embraces technology while nurturing the human connection.

1. As of April 2020, 188 countries had instituted school closures due to the pandemic.
2. Approximately 90% of the world’s wealthiest nations adopted online learning during COVID-19.
3. School closures affected nearly 1.6 billion students worldwide.
4. 42% of students say staying motivated was a major problem for them completing coursework online.
5. The demand for professional eLearning grew exponentially in 2020.
6. Personalized learning is expected to grow to over $250 million by 2025.
7. Almost 50% of employees will continue to work remotely post COVID-19.
8. 20%-25% of the workforce in advanced economies could work from home three to five days a week without losing productivity.
9. 55% of employees say their productivity increased while working remotely.
10. Almost one-third of U.S. employees say they would like to work remotely full time.
11. The loss of productivity due to poor mental health, including anxiety, might be as high as $1 trillion a year worldwide.
12. Approximately 30% of employees say they are likely to switch jobs if forced to return to fully on-site work.
13. Women are more likely to need to change occupations after COVID-19 than before.
14. 1 in 16 workers will need to find a different occupation by 2030.

Use These eLearning Statistics to Attract Your Ideal Prospects

Which one of these eLearning statistics made you sit up and take notice?

Use this information to create a piece of content or lead magnet for your website. Tweak your homepage to attract your target learners.

Not sure which eLearning statistic to choose? Pick one at random.

Don’t wait for the “perfect” idea to strike. Because the growth of online learning isn’t slowing down anytime soon.

And remember that 72.78% of adults consider themselves lifelong learners.