70+ Critical BYOD Statistics to Know in 2024

Bring your own device (BYOD) programs are essential for endpoint risk management. Whether your organization embraces employee devices or restricts them, it must do so according to a consistent policy.

Yet many organizations are still transitioning between traditional on-site work and remote-enabled hybrid work. New technologies and challenges are popping up faster than IT leaders and their teams can keep up. Adopting the right administrative framework is vital for ensuring long-term security and success.

Understanding how BYOD policies impact employee connectivity and productivity is the first step toward identifying the right path forward. We’ve collected the latest data available to help IT decision-makers balance employee expectations with their organization’s security and availability needs.

BYOD Statistics – Editor’s Picks

• Over 80% of organizations use BYOD today. 
• 68% of organizations report improved employee productivity as a result of implementing BYOD policies.
• 42% of IT leaders claim smartphones help increase the speed of innovation.
• Smartphones are among the devices least commonly provided to employees, with 27% of the total share.
• 30% of IT leaders say information security is the biggest obstacle to BYOD adoption.
• More than 90% of security incidents involving lost or stolen devices resulted in an unauthorized data breach.
• The larger an organization is, the greater the potential benefit of enabling BYOD smartphone use.

BYOD Usage Statistics and Trends

According to JumpCloud’s Q3 2024 SME IT Trends report: 

• 39% of survey IT professionals working at small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are concerned about device management.
• 41% of SME IT professionals are concerned about the cost of solutions required to make remote work happen.
• Half of IT teams are more concerned about their organization’s security posture than they were six months ago.

These are powerful motivators pushing IT leaders toward implementing BYOD policies. The ability to manage devices and enable remote work are increasingly seen as strategic advantages. Organizations that fully support remote work with streamlined device management policies can retain top talent and grow. 

Samsung completes the picture with the following: 

• 61% of organizations expect employees to be available remotely, even if they don’t provide a company device for the purpose.
• Only 15% of companies provide employees with a work-issued smartphone.
• 80% of senior IT executives believe employees cannot do their jobs effectively without a mobile phone.
• Organizations that prioritize mobile workflows are more likely to provide devices to their employees.
• Organizations that provide devices to more than 20% of their employees are likely to have mature mobile enablement strategies. The same companies also report the most value from mobile enablement.
• Companies can save $341 per employee by switching from work-issued smartphones to BYOD.
• The average cost of enabling BYOD per employee is less than $900 per year.

BYOD usage appears to be an increasingly popular trend. However, it may not be most users’ first option. Beyond Identity reports that eight out of 10 employees say they would prefer to use separate devices for work and personal activities.

BYOD Adoption

Research and Markets estimates that the global market for BYOD enterprise mobility solutions is worth $98.8 billion. Experts expect that figure to reach $157.3 billion by 2026 — a 16.7% compound annual growth rate.

The trend toward enabling employees to use their own devices at work began during the pandemic. Now, 90% of employees report using a mix of company-issued and personal devices for work. Even as some employees return to the office, the expectation that they use their personal devices hasn’t changed.

This aligns with the results of a survey performed by Cybersecurity Insiders. According to the report: 

• Over 80% of organizations use BYOD today. 
• 70% of BYOD use cases involve employees bringing unmanaged devices into the workplace, but contractors, business partners, customers, and suppliers are also included.
• Concerns about information security are the most commonly cited obstacle to BYOD adoption, representing 30% of respondents.
  • 15% of respondents are concerned about employee privacy concerns.
  • 9% of respondents are concerned about the cost of supporting BYOD policies.
• Almost half (47%) of organizations report a significant increase in demand for BYOD due to the shift toward remote work.
• 70% of organizations allow employees to use their own devices at work.
• 61% of organizations allow their extended workforce to use personal devices for work purposes.
• 18% of organizations allow customers to interact directly with IT assets.
• Only 14% of organizations report not experiencing resistance to BYOD adoption.
• 48% of respondents expect that BYOD adoption will increase in the future, with nearly half that number saying it will increase “dramatically.”

Device Diversity

Organizations exhibit a great deal of variety in the types of devices they support and how they support them. According to our research:

• The average SME is made up of 24% macOS devices, 18% Linux devices, and 63% Windows devices.
  • The percentage of macOS and Windows devices has steadily increased by several percentage points over the last year.
• IT teams expect to continue supporting a broad range of devices.
  • 47% expect to increase Windows usage in the future.
  • 23% expect Windows usage will remain the same.
  • 16% expect to use fewer Windows devices and applications.
  • 25% expect to use more Linux devices in the future.
  • 23% expect Linux device usage to remain unchanged.
  • 13% expect Linux usage to decrease over time.
  • 35% expect macOS usage to increase in the future.
  • 23% expect macOS usage to remain the same.
  • 8% expect to use fewer macOS devices in the future.

Samsung completes this perspective into device diversity with the following:

• Desktop PCs are the device most commonly provided to employees by large organizations, representing 62% of assigned devices.
• Laptop computers comprise 43% of devices assigned to employees, but are the most frequently used personal device used for business, with a 73% share.
• Smartphones are among the devices least commonly provided to employees, with 27% of the total share.
• Since many organizations provide more than one device to employees, these statistics add up to over 100%.

BYOD Use by Country

While BYOD is a global phenomenon, BYOD adoption is not uniform across the world. According to data from Egnyte, the regional growth rate of BYOD practices is highest in North America, Oceania, and Asia. It is particularly pronounced in Australia, India, and China, where growth is outpacing already mature markets like the United States.

Europe is trending in the middle of BYOD adoption. Companies in countries like Ireland, Switzerland, Austria, and Germany are transitioning toward BYOD adoption, but at a slower rate than their North American or Asian counterparts. European employees may be more reluctant to share personal and work-related applications on a personal device.

South American, African, and Middle Eastern countries are trending on the low end of BYOD adoption. There is less data on BYOD statistics in these regions overall, suggesting that few organizations are ready to dedicate time and effort to building infrastructure and formalizing BYOD governance policies.

BYOD Security Concerns

Visibility remains a core challenge to BYOD security. According to our own research: 

• 60% of JumpCloud survey respondents report security being their top concern. 
• 84% of IT leaders are concerned about shadow IT threats. 
• Network attacks, software vulnerability exploits, and ransomware also top the list of specific security concerns related to BYOD policies.
• More than one out of five organizations have confirmed that digital assets have downloaded malware due to unmanaged device connections in the last 12 months.
  • Nearly half of respondents say they are unsure whether the same scenario applies to them. That means that the real number may be much higher.

Organizations that open their IT infrastructure up to unmanaged devices must contend with the risk of unauthorized applications running on those devices. Shadow IT remains one of the most challenging risks for IT leaders to address for multiple reasons:

• Lack of visibility into the applications used by all employees connecting to enterprise assets (32%).
• There is no SaaS or asset management solution in place to address shadow IT issues (24%).
• Business users move too fast for the company to keep up with their needs (31%).
• Lack of streamlined channels for communicating with business partners to establish core policies (29%).
• Not enough resources to focus on shadow IT threats while addressing other higher priority issues at the same time (36%).

Other issues related to BYOD adoption that IT leaders report being concerned about include:

• Overly permissive privileges (14%)
• Multi-factor authentication fatigue (20%)
• Network attacks (40%)
• Software vulnerability exploit (31%)
• Spear phishing of privileged credentials (20%)
• Stolen or shared user credentials (24%)
• Reuse of weak or compromised passwords across multiple applications (19%)
• Device theft (17%)
• Shared devices among non-employees (14%)
• Misuse of a privileged account (18%)
• Use of unsecured networks (25%)
• Ransomware (31%)

BYOD is a major contributor to the security challenges IT leaders face. According to Verizon’s 2024 Data Breach Investigations Report, lost and stolen devices are behind a growing number of confirmed data breaches. 

• More than 90% of security incidents involving lost or stolen devices resulted in an unauthorized data breach.
  • 88% of these cases involved an internal threat actor, representing increased insider risk.
  • Personal data was leaked in 97% of these cases, while internal business data was leaked in 42% of cases. Financial data was leaked in 25% of cases.
• 68% of breaches involve a non-malicious human element, like a person falling victim to social engineering or making a preventable error.
• Laptops are among the most commonly lost and stolen devices in the enterprise IT environment.
• Misuse of personal privileges for financial gain has sharply increased year-over-year. Since personal devices contain a great deal of personal data, they are high-value assets to cybercriminals.

Prey reports that people are most likely to lose their devices in locations they feel are secure — like their home, office, or car. In fact, you are six times more likely to be pickpocketed at work than in a bar.

These risks aren’t limited to rank-and-file employees, either. According to Agency:

• 97% of business executives access work accounts on personal devices.
• 95% use personal devices for multi-factor authentication (MFA) on work accounts. 
• 89% of executives believe companies should provide their employees with cybersecurity software.
• 88% of executives receive work-related spam or phishing messages on personal accounts.
  • Executives working for mid-sized organizations with up to 1,000 employees are more likely to receive work-related spam than executives working for large enterprises.
• Eight out of 10 executives believe letting their company monitor their personal device usage would be an invasion of privacy.
  • At the same time, 73% of respondents would allow employers to install company software on their personal device to improve operational security.
• 80% of C-suite executives report that they send work-related texts and emails from personal devices.
  • This is higher than the 74% average among employees with less seniority.
• Three-quarters of respondents report their company has been targeted by cyberattacks in the past.
  • The more frequently attacked business sectors include Information Research and Analysis (100%), Education (89%), and Manufacturing (81%).
• 58% of executives report that their spouse or partner has access to their physical devices. 38% report their children have access to their devices, while only 30% report that no one has access to their devices.

BYOD Benefits

Enabling employees to use their own devices at work can result in significant productivity gains. When paired with robust device management policies and technological capabilities, BYOD can help employees achieve more and feel better about their work.

According to Cybersecurity Insiders:

• 68% of organizations report improved employee productivity as a result of implementing BYOD policies.
• 53% of organizations say BYOD-enabled employees report greater job satisfaction.
• 45% report enjoying cost savings due to BYOD enablement.
• 7% claim employees have improved mobility through the organization as a result of BYOD.

Samsung reports the following:

• 42% of respondents claim smartphones help increase the speed of innovation.
• 41% claim using smartphones at work improves flexibility.
• 39% claim that smartphones increase the quality of collaboration and the ability to boost productivity.
• More than one-third of respondents claim BYOD policies have a positive impact on employees’ work-life balance.
• Employees gain nearly an hour of work time each day when using smartphones to complete tasks.
• These time savings add up to more than 240 hours of work per year, representing an efficiency boost of 34%.
• The larger an organization is, the greater the potential benefit of enabling BYOD smartphone use.

Future Implications of BYOD

All of the data suggests that BYOD policies will continue to play a growing role in enterprise IT infrastructure in the future. Organizations that enable employees to use their personal devices will enjoy productivity gains that give them a competitive edge.

Effectively managing BYOD devices will require IT leaders to address the security and privacy concerns that employees have. Employees are still hesitant to grant employers access to their personal devices, suggesting a need for a deeper sense of trust between the two. 

Organizations that implement technological solutions their employees trust are better positioned to make the most of their BYOD initiatives. Developing robust BYOD policies and enforcing them without compromising employee privacy and comfort is a winning strategy for balancing security and usability.

The fact is that security remains the biggest concern for IT leaders considering BYOD implementation. IT leaders that improve their security posture and invest in employee security training are likely to have a much easier time leveraging the benefits of BYOD, while limiting the associated risks.

Secure Your Devices with JumpCloud

Organizations are investing in increasingly complex fleets of devices and digital assets. Deploying a comprehensive BYOD strategy means implementing a cross-platform solution for managing diverse endpoints through a single, unified interface.
JumpCloud provides a consolidated platform for securing identities, devices, and access. It supports the diverse device environments typical of BYOD programs, including Windows, Apple, Linux, and Android devices — all while helping you optimize efficiency, security, and compliance. JumpCloud makes it easier for IT leaders to develop and enforce BYOD policies that fit seamlessly into employee workflows.

Try JumpCloud for free to find out how it can help you manage your device fleet more effectively.