There are a lot of numbers in reports on email and marketing automation, but you might be wondering how your stats compare to others in the same industry. What kind of open rates should companies like yours expect? How many bounces are too many? What’s an acceptable abuse complaint rate? The more context, the better.

Mailchimp sends billions of emails a month for millions of users. Needless to say, we track a lot of data. So we scanned hundreds of millions of emails delivered by our system (where campaign tracking was activated, and where users reported their industry) and calculated the average unique open rates, click rates, soft bounces, hard bounces, and abuse complaint rate by industry.

We only tracked campaigns that went to at least 1,000 subscribers, but these stats aren’t pulled from a survey of giant corporations with million-dollar marketing budgets and dedicated email marketing teams. Our customers range from 1-person startups to Fortune 500 companies, so the whole spectrum is represented in this data. Here’s your apples-to-apples comparison with others in your industry.

The data provided on this page was last updated in October 2019 and may vary from benchmarking data provided within the Mailchimp application.

Industry Average Open Rate Average Click Rate Hard Bounce Soft Bounce Unsubscribe Rate
All non-labeled accounts 22.71% 2.91% 0.40% 0.61% 0.25%
Agriculture and Food Services 23.31% 2.94% 0.32% 0.50% 0.28%
Architecture and Construction 22.51% 2.51% 0.73% 1.18% 0.32%
Arts and Artists 26.27% 2.95% 0.30% 0.51% 0.28%
Beauty and Personal Care 16.65% 1.92% 0.26% 0.33% 0.30%
Business and Finance 21.56% 2.72% 0.43% 0.55% 0.20%
Computers and Electronics 19.29% 2.08% 0.47% 0.79% 0.27%
Construction 21.77% 2.26% 0.86% 1.28% 0.39%
Consulting 20.13% 2.49% 0.50% 0.79% 0.27%
Creative Services/Agency 21.39% 2.66% 0.58% 0.93% 0.35%
Daily Deals/E-Coupons 15.06% 2.23% 0.07% 0.13% 0.10%
E-Commerce 15.68% 2.01% 0.19% 0.26% 0.27%
Education and Training 23.42% 2.90% 0.32% 0.51% 0.21%
Entertainment and Events 20.51% 2.36% 0.28% 0.43% 0.26%
Gambling 21.62% 3.30% 0.42% 0.38% 0.15%
Games 21.10% 3.66% 0.37% 0.44% 0.25%
Government 28.77% 3.99% 0.33% 0.50% 0.13%
Health and Fitness 21.48% 2.69% 0.30% 0.40% 0.40%
Hobbies 27.74% 5.01% 0.18% 0.31% 0.23%
Home and Garden 21.60% 3.03% 0.32% 0.52% 0.35%
Insurance 21.36% 2.13% 0.67% 0.71% 0.25%
Legal 22.00% 2.81% 0.52% 0.66% 0.22%
Manufacturing 19.82% 2.18% 0.72% 1.18% 0.31%
Marketing and Advertising 17.38% 2.04% 0.44% 0.68% 0.27%
Media and Publishing 22.15% 4.62% 0.14% 0.27% 0.12%
Medical, Dental, and Healthcare 21.72% 2.49% 0.51% 0.63% 0.28%
Mobile 19.29% 2.27% 0.48% 0.58% 0.37%
Music and Musicians 21.88% 2.94% 0.28% 0.48% 0.26%
Non-Profit 25.17% 2.79% 0.33% 0.49% 0.20%
Pharmaceuticals 18.58% 2.25% 0.39% 0.53% 0.17%
Photo and Video 23.24% 3.23% 0.43% 0.65% 0.40%
Politics 22.94% 2.37% 0.28% 0.41% 0.21%
Professional Services 21.94% 2.55% 0.56% 0.83% 0.31%
Public Relations 21.02% 1.98% 0.45% 0.71% 0.17%
Real Estate 19.17% 1.77% 0.38% 0.56% 0.27%
Recruitment and Staffing 21.14% 2.53% 0.45% 0.53% 0.30%
Religion 27.62% 3.16% 0.17% 0.25% 0.15%
Restaurant 19.77% 1.34% 0.37% 0.50% 0.28%
Restaurant and Venue 20.39% 1.40% 0.32% 0.45% 0.39%
Retail 18.39% 2.25% 0.22% 0.32% 0.25%
Social Networks and Online Communities 21.06% 3.32% 0.20% 0.34% 0.22%
Software and Web App 21.29% 2.45% 0.65% 0.97% 0.37%
Sports 24.57% 3.09% 0.26% 0.39% 0.28%
Telecommunications 20.92% 2.27% 0.63% 0.87% 0.23%
Travel and Transportation 20.44% 2.25% 0.31% 0.51% 0.24%
Vitamin Supplements 15.03% 1.62% 0.23% 0.36% 0.27%
Average Totals 21.33% 2.62% 0.40% 0.58% 0.26%

The average open rate for all industries we analyzed is 21.33%.

Open rates are one of the best ways to tell whether your email strategy is working. This number shows what percentage of your audience opens the emails you send them. If you have a great open rate, it usually means your subject lines resonate with your audience.

Here are a few examples of successful open rates:

  • The most opened emails are related to government, with an open rate of 28.77%.
  • Emails sent by hobbies entities come in second, with a 27.74% open rate.
  • With a 27.62% open rate, emails about religion came in third.
  • The average open rate for all industries we analyzed is 21.33%.

Another good way to check how well your emails are working is to take a look at the click rates. The click rate is a percentage that tells you how many successfully delivered emails got at least 1 click. This number shows whether or not your audience finds the emails you send relevant enough to click through for more.

Here’s what standard click rates look like:

  • Hobbies have the highest click rate, which is 5.01%.
  • Media and publishing emails see the second highest click rate, at 4.62%.
  • Government comes in third, with a 3.99% click rate.
  • The average click rate for all industries we looked at is 2.62%.

The average click rate for all industries we analyzed is 2.62%

Tips for Improving Your Stats

  1. When it comes to subject lines, being straightforward works best. So tell, don’t sell what’s inside. Read our tips on writing effective subject lines.
  2. If you want people to open your emails, you have to get past their spam filters first. And the best way to avoid spam filters is to learn how they work.
  3. Too many hard bounces is a sign of an old, stale list. Make sure you email your subscribers regularly (at least once a quarter), so that your list stays up to date.
  4. Soft bounces usually mean the recipient is “temporarily unavailable.” Maybe they’re on vacation, or their mailbox is full. You can keep those emails and try them again later, but Mailchimp auto-cleans soft bounces after 5 failed campaigns.
  5. Hard bounces mean an email address failed. Maybe it no longer exists, or maybe someone made a typo when they subscribed to a list. But hard bounces might also be spam filter—if you see an abnormally high number of bounces after a campaign, read your bounceback records for any messages or clues from spam filters.

Abuse complaints happen when recipients click the “This is spam” button in their email programs. That usually means they don’t remember you. Make sure your “From” and “Subject” lines contain your company name, so your subscribers will instantly recognize you. Here are a few more tips for preventing spam complaints.