Nowadays, online and distance learning is popular in a way that it never had been before.
The popularity of online learning has been steadily increasing for many years, but the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 has really caused a boom in the number of people who are choosing online learning.
Udemy growth statistics are proving that it is one of the biggest names in online education. This is a global company that offers a variety of different online learning courses from data science to business analytics that can be accessed worldwide.
In the world of online learning, Udemy really is a giant with more than 54 million learners across the globe.
If you are interested in online learning, then there is a good chance that you might be considering Udemy.
In this guide, we’ll be taking a look at some of the most important Udemy statistics that you should be aware of. So if you want to find out more, keep on reading!
What Is Udemy?
First things first, let’s take a look at what Udemy is. Udemy Inc. is a global online learning company that was founded back in May 2010.
Its headquarters are located in San Francisco, California, but they offer its services across the globe, with more than 54 million learners based in a variety of different countries.
As well as providing services for more than 54 million students, Udemy also offers and Udemy recorded more than 204,000 courses that are taught by more than 71,000 instructors.
When we say Udemy is a giant, we really mean that Udemy is a giant.
This is by no means a small, start-up company, so there is no surprise that you might find yourself looking at Udemy if you are considering online learning.
Udemy offers both free and paid courses, and this is a large part of the reason why Udemy is so popular.
Their courses are accessible by those who are in a position to pay for courses, and also for those who are looking for online free courses that will allow them to build their skills and develop new ones.
Among the courses that Udemy offers, you will find courses in design, personal development, IT, music, and lots more.
So with no further ado, let’s take a look at some of the key statistics about Udemy that you should know.
Statistics About Udemy That You Should Know
Here are some of the most important statistics about Udemy that you should know before you sign up for any of their courses.
Udemy Has Grown A Lot
When Udemy launched back in 2010, it only had a couple of courses and a handful of instructors.
Within a couple of months, Udemy raised to more than 2,000 courses and more than 10,000 users.
More than 10 years later, Udemy has more than 52,000 users across the globe, which is pretty impressive growth from that small company that launched back in 2010.
The Pandemic Accelerated Udemy’s Growth
The great thing about Udemy is that it is a company that is constantly growing and evolving.
You can easily sign up to be a tutor for Udemy and because of this, there are constantly new and exciting courses becoming available on the online learning platform.
As the popularity of Udemy grew, it got to a point where roughly 3,000 new courses were added to Udemy every single month.
Once the growth cycle of Udemy reached this point, it started to become a little stagnant, that was until the COVID-19 pandemic.
When the COVID-19 pandemic caused an increasing number of people to spend their time indoors, a lot of individuals turned to online learning to pass the time.
As more users signed up for the courses that Udemy offered, more tutors began to add courses to the platform.
In 2020, roughly 3,000 new courses were being added every month, but by April 2021, this number had doubled with roughly 6,000 new courses becoming available on Udemy every single month.
Professional Skills Are Popular On Udemy
If you look at the wide range of courses that Udemy offers, it is easy to assume that the vast majority of their courses are for skills rather than qualifications.
When a platform offers courses on how to prepare sourdough, it is hard to imagine yourself learning mathematics on the same platform.
But despite a wide variety of throw-away skills courses, there are also a lot of professional courses on Udemy.
Some of the top-ranking skills that grew the most during the COVID-19 pandemic include:
- Neural Networks (up by 61%)
- Communication Skills (up by 131%)
- Growth Mindset (up by 206%)
Passion Skills Have Also Become Increasingly Popular
As well as the growth in popularity of professional skills on Udemy, an increasing number of people are also signing up to study passion skills on this platform too.
There are a huge amount of different passion project courses that you can sign up for on Udemy, some of the popular ones include the following:
- Ukulele (up by 292%)
- Technical Drawing (up by 920%)
- Pilates (up by 402%)
So not only are people signing up for professional and official courses on Udemy, a lot of people are taking advantage of this platform to develop their own personal and technical skills too.
Udemy Is Growing In Popularity Across The Globe
From the ultimate drawing course to finance courses more and more are becoming available on Udemy, it seems that the number of Udemy users signing up is not only growing in the USA but across the globe too.
Statistics published by Udemy show that there has been a huge growth in the popularity of Udemy across the world.
Some of the places where the number of users has grown significantly include the following:
- 130% growth in enrollments in the USA.
- 200% growth in the number of enrollments in India.
- 320% growth in enrollments in Italy.
- 280% growth in the number of enrollments in Spain.
So, as you can see the popularity of Udemy is not only growing in the USA but in Europe and India too!
The Popularity of Udemy Is Also Growing Among Employers
We recognize that a number of these statistics are linked to the COVID-19 pandemic, but this was really when Udemy had an excellent opportunity to grow.
During this time, Udemy not only grew in popularity among individuals using it, but it also became popular among employers during this time too.
According to Udemy, some of the most popular courses among employers purchasing these courses for their employees include:
- Office Productivity
- Health and Fitness
- IT & Software
- Personal Development
These are obviously just groups of courses, with individual employers choosing courses within these groups.
But the popularity of all of these groups increased significantly during the pandemic.
These include a 159% increase in sign-ups for office productivity, an 84% increase in health and fitness, a 77% increase in IT & Software, and a 61% increase in personal development.
Fortune 100 Companies Trust Udemy
One study by Udemy themselves has found that it’s not just any old employers that trust Udemy for upskilling their employees.
In fact, a large number of Fortune 100 companies trust Udemy for this very purpose.
Udemy itself has stated that they are designed to upskill workers, and this is why its platform is designed in the way that it is.
The study in question found that 80 percent of Fortune 100 companies trust Udemy for upskilling purposes within their companies.
So, if it is good enough for the Fortune 100, it is safe to assume that Udemy courses are good enough for you.
Udemy Offers Affordable Courses
When you look at traditional education and the costs associated with this, it is clear to see that traditional education isn’t achievable for everyone.
That is why online course providers such as Udemy can be such a great choice for many people.
Statistics show that Udemy offers a wide range of courses at a wide range of prices.
Udemy offers a wide range of free courses, and then they also offer a wide range of paid courses too.
The prices for their paid courses are pretty reasonable in comparison to the prices for traditional education, with their prices starting from $12.99 and ranging up to $199.99.
In addition to offering pretty low prices, these prices are often further reduced because there are often a lot of discounts offered by the company.
So, if you want to scoop up a great deal for an online course, then Udemy is a great place to go.
Udemy’s Most Popular Course Is Python
As we have established in this guide, Udemy offers a huge variety of different courses.
From how to bake sourdough to the English Language and programming languages, there are lots of different courses to choose from.
But, the most popular course on Udemy is actually a course called Python, which specializes in a specific type of computer programming.
Udemy frequently publishes a list of its most popular courses, and as you can see in this list, a huge amount of these courses are in web development and computer programming.
These sorts of courses work really well when it comes to distance learning because they are things that many people teach themselves, so it isn’t that surprising that they are some of the highest rankings on Udemy.
Although it is worth noting that it isn’t just computer programming and web development courses that are popular on Udemy.
There are lots of courses in the top 25 in topics other than this, including project management, game development, 3D & animation, and lots more.