70 eLearning Statistics (2025): Facts, Growth, & Success Rate

The online learning market has undergone significant transformation in recent years, currently valued at approximately $185.20 billion. The United States is at the forefront of this growth, with projections indicating it will generate $87.51 billion in revenue.

Looking ahead, the e-learning industry is expected to soar to an impressive $539.88 billion by 2028. Additionally, 75% of schools in the U.S. are anticipated to transition to fully online operations in the coming years, highlighting the shift toward digital education.

Let’s take a look at the latest e-learning statistics, which highlight the current state of the e-learning market, e-learning adoption in academics and the corporate industry, and additional insights into the market.

eLearning Statistics 2025: Top Picks 

  • The online learning market has expanded by 900% since 2000.
  • The e-learning market is projected to reach $320.96 billion.
  • Students retain 25% to 60% more information through online learning.
  • 4 in 10 Fortune 500 companies use e-learning for employee training.
  • 73% of U.S. students want to continue online classes post-pandemic.
  • AI adoption in eLearning has boosted student engagement by 80%.
  • 85% of teachers utilize digital learning tools to enhance student engagement.
  • 93% of businesses globally plan to adopt eLearning.
  • Employee engagement has risen by 18% with the use of eLearning.

eLearning Industry Statistics For 2025

  • The e-learning market is projected to reach an impressive $320.96 billion.

By 2028, the market size is expected to rise to around $539.88 billion, reflecting a strong compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14.1% from 2024 to 2028. 

This growth illustrates a vibrant marketplace that is continually evolving and thriving, starting from a market size of $281.22 billion in 2023.

Source: The business research company 

  • The global revenue for online learning platforms is projected to hit $58.45 billion. 

At the same time, the market for Online University Education is expected to generate $120.70 billion, while Professional Certificates are anticipated to contribute $6.04 billion. 

This brings the total revenue for the online education market to an estimated $185.20 billion in 2024, with projections indicating it could grow to $279.30 billion by 2029.

Revenue From Online Learning Worldwide

Here are further details about the revenue from online learning worldwide. 

Online learning 20242029
Online Learning Platform$56.69 billion$75.52 billion
Online University Education$85.50 billion$194.90 billion
Professional Certificates$4.68 billion$8.92 billion
Total Online Learning revenue$185.20 billion$279.30 billion

Source: Statista. 

  • eLearning education is predicted to generate a revenue of $239.3 billion in 2027

The market is expected to have an annual growth rate of  9.48% between 2023 and  2027. 

Predicted Values of The E-learning Market Revenues

Here are further details about the predicted values of the eLearning market revenues. 

YearOnline Learning Revenue 
2023$166.60 billion
2024*$185.20 billion
2025*$203.80 billion
2026*$220.80 billion
2027*$239.30 billion
2028*$259.00 billion
2029*$279.30 billion

*-estimated values

Source: Statista. 

Growth Of Online Education: Statistics For 2025

  • Online learning has grown by 900% over the years. 

The Online learning market worldwide has grown nine times since the year 2000. It is the fastest-growing market in the education sector. 

Source: Oxford College. 

How Many People Prefer To Learn Online?

  • 69% of students worldwide said they prefer fully online, hybrid, or blended learning options. 

On the other hand, 31% of the students said that they prefer face-to-face instructions. 

Source: Edscoop

  • 41% of the United States graduates said they prefer online education over traditional education.

Two in five students in the United States believe that online education helped them better experience all-around growth compared to the traditional experience. 

Source: Statista. 

  • 96% of online college students said that they would recommend online learning.

According to Best Colleges data, 93% of the graduates said their online learning will result in a positive return on investment.

 Meanwhile, 75% of the students said that online education was better than or equal to in-person learning. 

  • 36% of the students said completing an online course is easier than learning in the classroom. 

A study by Oxford University in the United Kingdom highlighted that almost 2 in 5 students said studying and completing an online course was easier than completing studies offline.

Comparatively, 29% of the students disagreed and said it was just as difficult. 

Source: Oxford College.  

  • 95% of learners said that they are able to retain information with the help of video-based educational materials. 

Source: research.com.

Did You Know? Readers retain 65% of the information paired with a relevant infographic.

eLearning Schools And Students Statistics

  • 98% of the universities now offer online courses. 

The trend of online education that started during the pandemic continues post-pandemic, and over 9 out of 10 schools offer some form of online learning programs. 

  • Asia Pacific has the highest student presence on the eLearning platforms. 

28 million new online learners enrolled in 68 million courses in the region. North America, Europe, and Latin America follow the Asia Pacific region.

  • The average age of an online student is recorded to be 32 years globally. 

The oldest eLearning students are recorded to have an age of 34 years, while the youngest was recorded to have an age of 29 years.

Source: Coursera. 

  • 60% of the college students took at least one course online. 

Around 30% of students took only online classes, while the other 30% had some of their classes online. 

Source: Best colleges. 

  • Most of the undergraduate students attending four-year colleges in public institutions attended online classes. 

61% of the undergraduates were enrolled in at least one course online, while 56% of the graduate students were enrolled.

Corporate eLearning Statistics

  • Companies achieved more than 18% employee engagement by adopting eLearning technologies. 

eLearning doesn’t need to be limited to educational institutes.

eLearning technologies provide a helping hand to companies for training their employees well, and it is proving to be beneficial.

Employee engagement and productivity rates increase considerably when they are provided with learning material.

Source: Global News Wire. 

  • The corporate eLearning industry is forecasted to have a market size of $44.6 billion by the end of 2028. 
Corporate eLearning Industry

In 2021,. The market size of the industry was $22.5 billion. The market size is anticipated to grow at an average rate of 10.5% year-over-year. 

  • eLearning usually requires 40% to 60% less employee time. 

Compared to the traditional classroom setting, employees require less than half of their time to learn a new skill through eLearning.

Source: Elearning industry. 

  • Approximately 40% of the Fortune 500 companies worldwide use eLearning for training. 

2 out of 5 Fortune 500 companies use eLearning regularly. Besides, large firms worldwide deliver one-fourth of the training online. 

Source: Skill Scouter. 

  • 90% of companies worldwide offer their employees some form of digital learning.

According to a study conducted by LinkedIn, 68% of employees prefer to learn at work, while 58% want to learn at their own pace. Meanwhile, 49% want to learn when they need it.

Source: LinkedIn

  • Companies with extensive eLearning training generate 218% higher revenue per employee. 

According to Deloitte, an average employee dedicates 1% of their weekly time to training. 

This time invested in training helps the employees to stay up to date with the latest trends, upskill their abilities, and learn about the developments in the industry. 

Source: eLearning Industry, Deloitte. 

  • Every dollar invested in online training resulted in $30 of productivity for IBM. 

This helped them to save $200 million after switching to eLearning. That’s because the employees could work faster with the newly learned skills. 

Source: Shift Learning. 

  • 61% of the experts said their first priority was closing the skill gap by introducing eLearning.

Other top priorities were driving organizational growth (46%), Improving employee engagement (44%), and increasing job satisfaction (34%). 

Source: Udemy. 

Online Learning Stats By Country

  • In fall 2020, 8.6 million college students in the United States enrolled in eLearning.

Besides, 5.4 million students were enrolled in at least one distance education course in the United States. 

Source: Statista. 

  • 75% of US undergraduate students have enrolled in distance education courses as of 2020. 

11.8 million students in the United States took at least one distance education course. At the same time, 44% of them were exclusively enrolled in distance eLearning courses.

Source: NCES. 

  • 46% of the Irish students were enrolled in online courses in 2021. 

The students in Ireland had the highest engagement in online courses among people aged 16 and 74 in 2021. 

Finland and Sweden follow them with a 45% engagement rate and the Netherlands with 44%. 

Source: Eurostat. 

  • The highest number of eLearners is in the United States. 

According to Coursera, 17.3 million learners on Coursera were registered in the United States. 

The second-highest learners on the platform are from India. 

Top Countries With the Most Learners on Coursera

Here is a table displaying the top countries with the most learners on Coursera:

CountryNumber Of Learners
United States17.3 million
India13.6 million
Mexico4.8 million
Brazil3.7 million
China3.3 million
Canada2.4 million
Russia2.4 million
United Kingdom2.4 million
Colombia2.2 million
Egypt1.6 million

Source: Coursera. 

  • The highest growth rate for new learners was recorded in Paraguay. 

The country displayed 98% growth, totaling 110,000 learners. Lebanon witnessed the second-highest growth rate of 97%. 

Here is a table displaying the countries with the highest rate of new learners:

CountryThe Growth Rate Of Learners
Paraguay98%
Lebanon97%
Phillippines85%
Guyana74%
Indonesia74%
Kenya69%
Ethiopia61%
Rwanda60% 
Vietnam55%
Kazakhstan54%

Source: Coursera. 

How Efficient Is ELearning?

  • The eLearning courses have increased the online retention rates of students by 25% to 60%. 
The eLearning Courses Have Increased The Online Retention Rates

Many students struggle to maintain their interest throughout the semester in offline learning. Conversely, online learning enables flexibility, leading to increased student retention rates.

Source: eLearning industry. 

  • Online courses consume 90% less energy and 85% less CO2 per student.

eLearning is environment-efficient, too! 

Source: eLearning industry. 

  • Seven out of ten teachers agree that learning tools are helpful when studying things on their own. 

Besides, 95% of them recommend it to others as they found the tools helpful. 

Source: Research.com 

  • 71% of the principals said that digital learning tools help their students in real-world problem-solving skills.

At the same time, 35% of teachers and school administrators believe that eLearning helps them personalize instructions according to the student’s skill level.

Source: Research.com. 

Source: elearningstats.education.

MOOC Statistics

  • The MOOC market is projected to reach $21.4 billion by 2025. 

North America is the highest contributor to the MOOC market, with a current market share of 29.4%.

  • The MOOC market was projected to have an annual growth rate of 29% between 2020 and 2025. 

The Asia Pacific region is projected to have the highest annual growth rate during this forecasted period. 

  • Coursera is the most preferred MOOC platform. 

With more than 76 million learners, Coursera is the top choice for students and professionals. 

Here are further details about the top MOOC platform in the table below:

Course Name LearnersCourseDegrees
Coursera92 million4600+25
Edx41 million3500+13
FutureLearn17 million1160+28
Swayam24 million1130+0

Coursera

  • 92 million learners have registered on Coursera as of 2023. 

This number has increased three times compared to the year 2018. The number of learners count in 2018 was 37. 3 million. 

Source: TechCrunch. 

  • Coursera has partnerships with over 275 universities and companies worldwide. 

Some of the top Universities that Coursera has partnered with are Yale, Google, University of Michigan, IBM, Duke University, Imperial College London, Los Andes University, etc. 

Source: Coursera.

  • 53% of the students on Coursera are male, while 47% of students are female. 

Source: Coursera. 

  • Coursera generated a total revenue of $153.7 million in the 2nd quarter of 2023. 

This was an increase of 23%  compared to the previous year. In the 2nd quarter of 2022, Coursera generated revenue of $124.8 million. 

Source: Coursera Investor report

  • Coursera recorded a total revenue of $523.8 million in 2022. 

This is an increase of 26% compared to the previous year. In 2021, Coursera recorded a revenue of $415.3 million. 

Source: Coursera 

edX

  • 76% of the learners stated that edX gave them access to an otherwise unattainable education. 
  • edX’s current revenue is estimated to be $44 million per year. 

The revenue of the platform doubled from $15 million to $44 million between 2016 and 2018. 

  • More than 3.5K courses are available on edX. 

Masterclass

  • MasterClass has more than 2 million active subscribers. 
  • A large number of Masterclass learners are Women. 
  • 51.28% of the subscribers on MasterClass are female. Meanwhile, 48.72% of subscribers are male. 
  • MasterClass is Valued at $2.75 billion. 

Source: Learnopoly, upskillwise. 

Linked Learning Statistics

  • More than 27 million users have registered on LinkedIn. 
  • Around 20,800 courses are available on LinkedIn learning. 

These courses are available in 11 languages. 

Impact Of Covid-19 On eLearning

  • 18% of the students registered on the eLearning platform during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

50 nations worldwide had shut down their schools during the COVID-19 pandemic, which motivated 1 in every 5 students worldwide to enroll on eLearning platforms. 

Source: ncbi

  • 60% of students found the online forum and discussions helpful. 

These numbers increased from less than 30% to 60% just within a few weeks.

Source: BMC Medical Education. 

  • 70% of the students and 60% of teachers preferred online forums and hybrid learning over face-to-face learning during the pandemic.

Source: BMC Medical Education. 

  • Educators said that students can cover up to 50% of the content by themselves with the help of eLearning. 

Source: BMC Medical Education. 

Did You Know? There was an 82% increase in smartphone users registered among Gen Z due to the COVID-19 Pandemic

Use Of AI In eLearning

  • 47% of the LMS tools will be powered by AI capabilities. 
  • The adoption of VR products in eLearning is estimated to have reached $33.9 billion in 2022. 
  • The eLearning VR market is anticipated to reach $1.4 billion by the end of 2027. 

The market was valued at $60 million in 2018 and was predicted to grow at a CAGR of  42.9% between 2019 and 2027.

Source: Research.com. 

Conclusion: The eLearning Industry Is Estimated To Have Reached $320.96 Billion

The eLearning industry is experiencing significant growth, with global revenue projected to $539.88 billion by 2028, growing rapidly at a CAGR of 14.1% between 2024 and 2028.

In the U.S., approximately 54% of undergraduate and graduate students opted for online courses in 2023. Additionally, over 2 in 5 Fortune 500 companies worldwide have embraced eLearning, highlighting its swift adoption in education and corporate training.

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