Online/E-Learning Market Size 2023: Surprising Statistics

By the year 2026, the worldwide e-learning industry will be worth $375 billion. Find more online learning market size statistics below.

Steven Zauderer

May 21, 2024

4.5

min read

Global Online Market Size

Statistic	Value
Global market size (2021)	$11.3 billion
Projected growth (2020-2026)	32.1%
Number of students enrolled (2019)	37.6 million
Number of K-12 students using e-learning (2019)	6.7 million
Number of higher education students using e-learning (2019)	30.9 million

Below we've compiled the most important e-learning statistics related to its market size.

By the year 2026, the worldwide e-learning industry will be worth $375 billion.
By 2024, experts forecast that the US e-learning industry will grow by $21.64 billion.
America is currently the home to 34% of applications made for e-learning.
The e-learning industry had a value of $3.97 billion in 2019.
The United States has 43% of the market share for online learning, which has a value of $20 billion.
The market size of virtual classrooms was $11.3 billion in 2021.
From 2020 to 2026, the e-learning industry as a whole is expected to increase with a compound annual growth rate of 32.1%.
$200 billion was the entire online learning industry's value in 2019.
The online learning section contributed to the e-learning industry's growth the most, totaling $101 billion.
$19.5 billion is the market value of the mobile e-learning arm of the online learning industry.
$18 billion is the value of the learning management system.
In 2016 online learning for self-paced customers lowered in value from its previous $46.9 billion to $46.6 billion.
The global compound annual growth rate for learning that's self-paced is listed as -6.4% with an ongoing decrease.
The worldwide e-learning industry is anticipated to have a compound annual growth rate of 8% from 2020 to 2025.
35% of the entire e-learning market share is in Europe.
The worldwide online learning industry has an anticipated compound annual growth rate of 11% between 2020 and 2025.
Regardless of the forecasts, self-paced online learning increased by 2.17% in 2020.
It's been approximated that the e-learning industry's market growth will rapidly increase its compound annual growth to 3% between 2020 and 2024.
$6.71 is the expected value of the e-learning market in 2024.
Synchronous learning is anticipated to increase in popularity by 31% in 2023.
The fastest-growing region for the online learning market is Asia-Pacific, with an anticipated value of $80 billion and a compound annual growth of 18.1% by 2030.
The worldwide online learning industry will have a value of $215 billion in 2021. It's expected to climb to a value of $645 billion by 2030 with a compound annual growth of 13%.
Based on delivery, the worldwide e-learning industry is partitioned into just a handful of companies, with a total estimated value of $325 billion by the year 2030 and a compound growth rate of 11.2%.
The worldwide e-learning industry is also partitioned into just two organizations by learning mode, though the self-paced segment is anticipated to reach a value of $435 billion by 2030 and a compound growth rate of 14.6%.

Online Learning Industry Revenue

Year	Revenue
2015	$9.25 billion
2016	$17.06 billion
2017	$21.96 billion
2018	$30.49 billion
2019	$35.97 billion

U.S. Online Market Size

The United States contains 34% of the worldwide e-learning market.
38% of the growth in the self-paced online learning market is in the continent of North America.
Experts forecast that the American e-learning industry will scale in value by $21.64 billion by the year 2024.
The market growth for e-learning will see a compound annual growth rate of $12 by 2024.
America will contain the highest growth rate of e-learning, 100% more in comparison to other countries around the world.
Back in 2014, mobile e-learning products and services rose to $1.6 billion in value.
In 2019, growth in mobile e-learning was expected to grow in value by $2.1 billion.
Back in 2016, the American e-learning industry had a value of $27 billion.
In 2016, the United States comprised 50% of the online market listed as fast-paced.
The year-over-year growth rate in the fast-paced learning market in 2020 was 9.8%.
The learning management system's market size in the United States for 2019 had a value of $3.97 billion.
The North American continent leads the world region market for e-learning and is expected to grow in value to $76 billion by 2030, with a compound annual growth of 11.3%.
The worldwide online learning market was valued at $215 billion in 2021.
The e-learning market is expected to rise in value to $645 billion by 2030, with a compound annual growth of 13% from 2022 to 2030.

Academic Online Learning Market Size

The United States funds 58% of deals related to e-learning since 2013.
Of 6.3 million college students in 2016, more than 33% of them, had one or more classes online.
America has 43% of the entire e-learning market share in 2016.
The worldwide educational market for children enrolled in primary school had a value of $6.73 billion in 2018.
Primary school grades from kindergarten to high school seniors comprise 42% of the American educational technology market.
Secondary education, which includes undergraduates, graduates, and others attending some form of higher education, makes up 54% of the American educational technology market.
3 million students choose online college over going to traditional courses in 2019.
5 million students chose to enroll in full or partial e-learning courses from a list of 3,438 colleges and universities.
The educational technology industry is anticipated to grow in value to $44.9 billion by 2025.
The worldwide online language learning industry's size value is $8.1 billion, with an anticipated increase to $26 billion in 2025.
The compound annual growth rate of the online language learning market is 18.1 from 2021 to 2025.
Within the online learning market, North America comprises 16% of it.
The academic industry had a value of $103 billion in 2019, with a compound growth rate of 11.23% from 2019 to 2025.
Virtual classrooms have a market size of $11.3 billion, with an anticipated 2026 increase to $33.5 billion.

Online Learning Market Trends

The hardware for e-learning has the biggest market share and a $19.92 billion annual revenue.
Software is anticipated to dominate the market regardless, with a compound growth rate of 31.2%.
The segment for content providers was 60%, with a 27.4 CAGR.
The service sector within the online learning market is anticipated to increase its CAGR in 2023 to 30.7%.
The market size of blended learning was $128 billion in 2019.
Blended learning is expected to increase its compound growth by 2025 to 11.14%.