60+ Telemedicine Statistics to Know in 2026

Like remote work and home deliveries, the telemedicine industry experienced a surge in demand during the COVID-19 pandemic due to the need for distance and self-isolation. In fact, telehealth usage grew from 37% pre-COVID to 67% during the height of the pandemic.

But have those adoption levels remained stable or continued to grow as the world has moved on in the years since? And how do other digital trends, like concerns around data privacy or AI, interact with virtual health?

In this article, we've rounded up over sixty statistics to show how telemedicine is evolving and what patients, healthcare providers, and technology providers alike can expect in this market.

Here's what this telemedicine fact sheet can tell you:

• Who Uses Telehealth? Key Demographics and Patient Needs

• Telemedicine Usage By Region

• How Do People View Telemedicine and Its Effectiveness?

• How Much Do Virtual Health Exams Cost?

• Is Modern Telehealth Tech Secure and Reliable in 2026?

• Telemedicine Adoption Pre-COVID and Post-COVID

• Emerging Telehealth Trends in 2026

Who Uses Telehealth? Key Demographics and Patient Needs

1. 80% of consumers have used telemedicine at least once (Rock Health).

2. 98% of transgender patients say they have used telemedicine (Rock Health).

3. Patients prefer to use telemedicine for prescription management (61%) and to receive care for minor illnesses (51%) (Rock Health).

4. Women are more likely to use telehealth than men (33.8% of women vs 26.3% of men) (CDC).

5. Older people use virtual care in higher numbers at 43.3% for 65+ and 29.4% for ages 18-29. (CDC).

6. People living in urban areas (34.2%) are more likely to use either video or audio-only telemedicine compared to those in rural areas (19.6%) (CDC).

7. Telehealth usage also varies by race and ethnicity. Of Latino patients with a Spanish-speaking preference, 46.9% use telehealth, compared to 39.8% of those with an English-speaking preference. For non-Hispanic white patients, telehealth usage dropped to 33.9%. (JAMA). 

8. Convenience (65%) and speed of receiving care (46%) are the top reasons for using telehealth (AHA).

9. 60% of Gen Z (18-24) had used virtual care in the past year and were the generation most likely to use text-based care (Rock Health).

10. 68% of Millennials had used virtual care in the past year (10% above average), and they were the top owners of connected devices (Rock Health). 

Telemedicine Usage By Region

1. Analysts project significant growth in the telemedicine market valuation across regions. In Europe, market valuation is expected to grow from $30.49 billion in 2025 to $90.98 billion by 2030. In India, projections show growth from  $3.87 billion to $9.75 billion within the same period (Mordor Intelligence; Mordor Intelligence).

2. In the Middle East and Africa, predictions show that the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) will be 25% from 2025 to 2030, with a slightly slower CAGR across the same period for Latin America at 20% (Mordor Intelligence; Mordor Intelligence).

3. North America and Europe are the two regions that collectively dominate the telemedicine market, with the full market share breakdown as follows:

   • North America: 39.69%

   • Europe: 28.49%

   • Asia-Pacific (APAC): 19.01%

   • South America: 6.91%

   • Middle East: 3.59%

   • Africa: 2.31%

(Cognitive Market Research)

How Do People View Telemedicine and Its Effectiveness?

1. 94% of customers who have accessed digital health care would try it again (J.D. Power).

2. 80% of patients who regularly receive primary care through telemedicine are consistently satisfied with the quality and level of care (BMC Health Services Research).

3. 86% of hospitals and 79% of general practice offices say they offer telehealth because it helps remove barriers that prevent patients from receiving care (Sage Growth Partners).

4. Around 75% of patients say telemedicine is as good or better than in-person care (JAMA). 

5. Dissatisfaction rates with virtual appointments have dropped over time (2021-23, 19% rated it worse than in person, down from 31% in 2020) (JAMA).

6. 90% of patients say connecting to telehealth sessions via their device is easy (ONS).

7. 89% of telehealth users were satisfied with their most recent virtual healthcare appointment (hims&hers).

8. 74% of patients who had a positive experience with telemedicine for the purpose of a medication review would use it again, but only 58% of those who had a difficult experience would (J.D. Power).

9. One pediatric virtual urgent-care program reduced emergency department visits by 44% (PubMed).

How Much Do Virtual Health Exams Cost?

1. Patients without insurance pay an average of $79 per telemedicine consultation (Solv.).

2. Health systems can reduce costs by implementing more virtual care visits. Swedish Health Care, for example, could cut annual costs by as much as 25% (BMC Health Services Research).

3. Telehealth saves cancer care patients $176-$223 per visit in travel costs and lost productivity (Huskie Commons). 

4. Implementing remote patient monitoring (RPM) for hypertension showed an average ROI of 22.2% (NIH). 

5. Heart failure patients who were Medicare beneficiaries experienced a 52% cost saving per month through RPM by reducing hospitalizations and visits to the emergency department (JCF). 

6. Telehealth saved $42 billion in annual healthcare costs (CTel).

7. Patients saved an average of $235 per digital encounter (CTel).

Is Modern Telehealth Tech Secure and Reliable in 2026?

1. 63% of healthcare professionals believe cloud-based systems like electronic health records are most at risk of a security breach (AT&T).

2. 52.4% of healthcare facilities have cybersecurity in place for both on-premise and cloud-based networks (AT&T).

3. Only 20% of telemedicine practitioners have in-house security officers and typically rely on external security vendors (AMA).

4. Only technology that meets HIPAA standards for security and privacy may be used in telemedicine in the U.S. (AHIMA).

5. 15% of patients surveyed cited data security concerns related to personal/medical information as a top barrier to telehealth (J.D. Power). 

6. 25% of patients cite internet or cellular connectivity problems as a top barrier, with 65% having experienced at least one issue such as poor connection or telehealth platform difficulty (J.D. Power).

7. Over 26% of Medicare beneficiaries (mostly in the seniors category) report having no computer or smartphone access in their homes, meaning they rely on telephone-only visits (AHA). 

8. In 2023, a record high of 725 reported healthcare data breaches exposed 124 million patient records (HIPAA Journal).

9. 90% of consumers are willing to share healthcare data with at least one entity, but willingness to share with clinicians fell from 70% to 64% over a one-year period (Rock Health). 

10. Young people aged 18-24 years old are most hesitant to share data, with only 42% being comfortable to do so (Rock Health).

Telemedicine Adoption Pre-COVID and Post-COVID

Pre-COVID

1. From 2016 through 2019, the use of telehealth in some medical specialties doubled from 14% to 28% (AMA).

2. In the five years preceding 2019, telemedicine had grown by 44% (GlobalMed).

3. In 2019, 66% of consumers were willing to try virtual health exams, 8% already had, and two-thirds were using personal health monitoring devices (American Well).

4. In 2019, 22% of practitioners used telemedicine to examine patients versus only 5% in 2015 (Ziegler).

5. In 2019, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs reported a 17% increase in telehealth services to veterans over the prior fiscal year (VA).

Post-COVID

1. 67% of people in a recent survey have used telehealth, compared to only 37% before the COVID-19 pandemic (J.D. Power).

2. 27% of patients feel more comfortable using telemedicine now than they did before the Coronavirus pandemic (Doximity).

3. Telehealth usage peaked during the pandemic, with 16% of physicians reporting that all of their patients were using it (Statista).

4. The U.S. Federal government lifted previous restrictions on telehealth services administered by medical professionals in response to the Coronavirus pandemic, adding more than 80 additional services, although some of these flexibilities are set to expire by September 2025 unless Congress intervenes (JAMA; HHS).

5. 76% of patients have expressed interest in telemedicine, compared to 2019, when only 11% of patients said they had experience using telehealth(McKinsey).

6. 58% of healthcare providers have a more positive view of telehealth than they did before the pandemic, and 64% feel more comfortable using it (McKinsey).

7. Healthcare practitioners now provide 50 to 175 times the number of telemedicine visits in 2020 than they did in previous years (McKinsey).

Emerging Telehealth Trends in 2026 

1. Overall usage is set to continue rising, with nearly 87% of U.S. hospitals in 2024 offered some telemedicine services, up from 72.6% in 2018 (AHA). 

2. The telehealth market size is forecasted to reach over $450 billion by 2030 at current growth rates (GrandView Research). 

3. Remote patient monitoring is also on the rise. In 2025, higher numbers of chronically ill patients used connected devices at home to transmit data to providers; the U.S. RPM market is on track to double from $14-$15 billion valuation in 2024 to over $29 billion by 2030 (IntuitionLabs). 

4. 53% of all consumers own at least one connected device, with 54% of those tracking at least one health-related metric digitally. The number rises among younger generations, with 64% of Gen Z tracking at least one health metric (Rock Health). As digital native generations continue to mature, we can expect connected device trends to follow suit.

5. The market for AI in telemedicine is projected to reach $27 billion by 2030 (Markets and Markets). 

6. Virtual care is reaching maturity; usage in 2023 remained steady at 76%, the third year in a row that usage was reported around the 75% mark (Rock Health). 83% of those who used telehealth in 2023 had also used it within the last 12 months, showing sustained engagement. With the market maturing, providers are looking to a future where omnichannel services across virtual and in-person care work in tandem to improve patient outcomes.

7. In 2023 versus 2022, preference for virtual care went down 4% for chronic condition management and 3% for annual wellness visits. But preference for virtual care rose for prescription refills by 8% and mental health services by 3%. These numbers indicate that as the market continues growing post-COVID, consumers are gaining a better understanding of which services they prefer in-person vs. virtually (Rock Health).

8. AI in telemedicine assists with diagnostics, RPM, medical image analysis, virtual triage, and more. (DataM Intelligence)

9. Providers are incorporating AI into both treatment and operations at an increasing rate. With use cases ranging from billing code documentation and chart summaries to translation and triage support, 66% of physicians said they used AI for at least one purpose in 2024, an increase from only 38% in 2023. Adoption will likely continue to grow (AMA).

10. AI is playing an increasingly important role in diagnostics. An AI-assisted tool identified over 90% of patients at risk of left ventricular dysfunction, a heart condition with no noticeable symptoms (Mayo Clinic).

11. Similarly, Type 2 diabetes patients using a digital health management app with AI-based dietary management were more successful in improving blood glucose levels and body weight than those who received only standard care (Diabetes Journal).

Final Thoughts

Telemedicine adoption amongst patients continues to grow, and the market size continues to increase. But the growth of telehealth is not distributed evenly amongst patient demographics, generations, regions, and specialties.

With AI now in the mix and expanding rapidly in healthcare, it remains to be seen how digital technologies like these can contribute to course correcting these discrepancies. But these advancements have to balance other key trends, like a growing concern around data privacy among younger generations and ongoing challenges with connectivity in more remote communities.

Both healthcare providers and developers have a key opportunity here to continue building platforms that deliver secure and reliable telehealth experiences as the industry grows.