VPNs are a great way for organizations with remote employees to address cybersecurity threats, data privacy concerns, and provide access to essential data. VPN stands for Virtual Private Network, and is a security technology that creates an encrypted connection between a user’s device and a private network over the internet to ensures that data transmitted between the user and the network is secured. This avoids unauthorized access, surveillance, or data interception.
With the constantly growing risk of cyberattacks, data breaches, and government surveillance, a VPN provides a critical layer of security and privacy, making it a valuable tool for both individuals and businesses.
We’ve read through the latest reports and statistics on the VPN market and have compiled the most important information in this article. We’ve considered users, benefits, and security capabilities to better understand what VPNs are capable of and how they are used across the industries.
General VPN Market Statistics
- The market size for VPNs is estimated at $88.96 billion USD in 2025. This is projected to grow to 534 billion by 2034 with a CAGR of 22%.
- Cloud-based deployment models held the largest revenue share in this market at 75%.
- Based on the type of user, the largest revenue share (55.7%) in this market comes from commercial use (as opposed to individuals or service providers.) However, VPNs for personal usage is projected to grow rapidly with a CAGR of 19.1% by 2030.
Who Is Using VPNs?
- According to a 2024 survey by Statista, around 22.9% of internet users worldwide used a VPN.
- The country with the highest rate of VPN usage was Russia at 37.8%. This is followed closely by the UAE at 36.2%.
In 2024, the demand for VPNs surged the most in the following regions:
- Turkey
- USA (specifically the states of Alabama, Montana, North Carolina, and Texas)
- Africa (Kenya, Mauritius, Mozambique, Senegal)
- South America (Brazil, Venezuela)
- South Asia (Bangladesh, Indonesia, Myanmar, Pakistan)
Personal VPN usage tends to be highest in regions where governments attempt to restrict access to certain kinds of online content. Users in these areas tend to use VPNs to circumvent these restrictions and access content that is freely available in other regions.
While specific laws vary, VPNs are banned in several countries.
There are also several countries where VPNs are not banned outright, but citizens are subject to strict censorship law and use of VPNs may be met with hostility from the government.
Why Use A VPN?
- According to an annual survey by Security.org, there is a relatively even split in VPN usage between personal and business use.
- The most common reasons that those surveyed chose to use a VPN were:
- 63% of respondents sought out VPNs for general privacy, followed closely by 54% looking to improve their general security
- 39% of respondents were required to use a VPN to perform a job function
- Another 39% of users wanted to block trackers from search engines and social media
- 35% of respondents wanted to hide their internet activity from their ISP, underlining the demand for privacy
- 43% of personal VPN users surveyed are using free VPNs. Only 8% of VPN users pay more than $10 per month for this kind of service.
- For those who did not use VPNs at all, these were the most cited reasons why:
- 52% of participants claimed to not need one
- 27% of participants found VPNs to be too expensive
- 20% of participants found VPNs too cumbersome to set up
- According to Zscaler’s ThreatLabz 2024 VPN Risk Report, 70% of organizations that use VPNs primarily do so to provide secure remote access for their employees.
- The next most popular reasons to use a VPN in the workplace were to connect multiple sites (33%) and provide access to third parties (26%).
VPN Security Statistics
This Cybersecurity Insiders report is based on a survey of 382 IT professional and cybersecurity experts. It explores the often multiple security and user experience challenges, exploring the deep complexity of managing VPNs in today’s business environment. It also assesses the vulnerabilities affecting cybersecurity and the potential impact on organizations’ wider security posture.
According to this report, these are the most common issues that end users may run into when accessing company resources via VPN:
- 25% of respondents complained of a slower connection speed
- 21% of respondents reported experiencing issues with connection drops
- 16% reported having inconsistent experiences across different devices or platforms
- When surveyed, organizations were asked what issues were the most significant with their current VPN service: the most popular answer (32%) was a poor user experience with issues like slow or spotty connections. The second biggest concern for organizations (14%) was high costs, which includes expenses such as infrastructure, licensing, and maintenance.
- The biggest challenges that organizations faced with managing their VPN infrastructure was balancing performance with user experience (22%) and troubleshooting connectivity or stability issues (20%).
Zscaler ThreatLabz 2024 VPN Risk Report
Zscaler’s report is based on a survey of 647 IT professionals and cybersecurity experts, exploring the security and user experience challenges of VPNs, examining the complexity of today’s access management, vulnerabilities to various cyberattacks, and their potential to impair organizations’ broader security posture.
- The Zscaler ThreatLabz 2024 VPN Risk Report found that 56% of organizations experienced one or more VPN-related cyberattacks in 2024. This figure is up from 45% in 2023.
- Respondents identified ransomware (42%), malware (35%), and DDoS attacks (30%) as the top threats exploiting VPN vulnerabilities.
- 91% of respondents expressed concerns about VPNs compromising their IT security environment.
- Running an older, legacy VPN can still leave organizations open to breaches if their infrastructure is unpatched or out of date.
- To combat these types of vulnerabilities, some organizations are shifting from legacy VPN architecture to modern alternatives like ZTNA that allow for implementing zero-trust.
To learn more about VPNs, how they can be used, and the options available to organizations, we recommend having a look at the following Expert Insights’ articles:
