Love Letter Statistics 2026: What 84,000+ Real Letters Show

Updated November 7, 2026 · Data through November 6, 2026 · Samples from 4,245 to 84,035 letters

These numbers come from love letters written on LovePaper, counted by a script. Nobody read the letters. Each statistic lists its own sample size and date range, because each field started being recorded on a different day.

Key numbers

55.3%

of love letters have no occasion. 39.8% picked "Just because" and 15.5% skipped the question.

n = 84,035 letters · August 13, 2026 to November 6, 2026

3.9

apology letters for every proposal letter (5,615 against 1,445).

n = 84,035 letters · August 13, 2026 to November 6, 2026

172 words

is the median length of a love letter. Half are shorter, half are longer.

n = 81,738 letters · August 24, 2026 to November 6, 2026

44.8%

of love letters written in English contain the exact phrase "I love you".

n = 61,062 letters · August 24, 2026 to November 6, 2026

11 pm

is the hour with the most letters, in local time. 36.5% are written between 10 pm and 4 am.

n = 15,248 letters · October 14, 2026 to November 6, 2026

78.2%

of love letters are never edited after they are sent.

n = 78,659 letters · August 31, 2026 to November 6, 2026

Why do people write love letters?

Most letters are not tied to a date. Among the occasions people did pick, birthday comes first (14.5%), then anniversary (11.7%) and apology (6.7%). Valentine's Day is 0.6%, but this data has no February yet.

The word "sorry" (or "apologize") appears in 21.7% of letters written in English. Only 6.3% of English letters were marked as an apology. The word also shows up in lines like "sorry I'm late", so this counts the word, not the intent.

Occasion chosen by the writer, % of letters
  • Just because39.8%
  • No occasion chosen15.5%
  • Birthday14.5%
  • Anniversary11.7%
  • Apology6.7%
  • Long distance6.0%
  • Friendship3.5%
  • Proposal1.7%
  • Valentine's Day0.6%

Related: letters by occasion · long-distance relationship guide

How long is a love letter?

The median love letter has 172 words and the average has 210. A quarter of letters have 80 words or fewer, and one in ten goes past 476. 16.7% have fewer than 50 words and 26.8% have more than 300.

LovePaper limits a letter to 3,000 characters. 4.2% of letters end within 50 characters of that limit, so the longest letters are slightly undercounted.

Proposal letters are the shortest, with a median of 116 words. Anniversary letters are the longest, at 203. By language: English 191, Spanish 175, French 174, Portuguese 163 words.

Words per letter, % of letters
  • 0–4916.7%
  • 50–9914.2%
  • 100–14913.6%
  • 150–19911.7%
  • 200–29916.9%
  • 300–39910.8%
  • 400–4997.9%
  • 500+8.2%
Median words by occasion
  • Proposal116 words
  • Friendship121 words
  • Valentine's Day124 words
  • Apology151 words
  • Long distance159 words
  • Just because171 words
  • No occasion chosen171 words
  • Birthday188 words
  • Anniversary203 words

Related: how long a love letter should be

What do people write in a love letter?

Among 61,062 letters written in English, "I love you" appears in 44.8%, "thank you" or "thanks" in 33.7% and "baby" or "babe" in 25.4%. Only the exact phrase counts: "I love u", "ily" or "love you" without the "I" are not included.

55.8% of all letters contain at least one emoji.

Phrases in letters written in English, % of letters
  • "I love you"44.8%
  • "thank you" / "thanks"33.7%
  • "baby" / "babe"25.4%
  • "sorry" / "apologize"21.7%
  • "forever"14.0%
  • "future"11.7%
  • "happy birthday"11.5%
  • "proud of you"7.2%
  • "miss you"7.0%

When do people write love letters?

Late at night. The busiest hour is 11 pm (10.9% of letters), then 10 pm (9.6%) and 9 pm (8.5%). Between 10 pm and 4 am: 36.5%. Between 9 am and 6 pm: 27.9%.

The hour is local time, worked out from the writer's country, so only countries with a single time zone are included: Philippines, India, Malaysia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Egypt, United Kingdom, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia. In the Philippines alone the peak is also 11 pm, with 36.8% written between 10 pm and 4 am.

Letters by local hour, % of letters
12 am: 7.3%1 am: 4.2%2 am: 2.7%3 am: 1.8%4 am: 1.6%5 am: 1.2%6 am: 1.4%7 am: 1.8%8 am: 2.1%9 am: 2.3%10 am: 2.8%11 am: 2.8%12 pm: 3.3%1 pm: 3.1%2 pm: 3.2%3 pm: 3.1%4 pm: 3.3%5 pm: 4.0%6 pm: 5.2%7 pm: 6.4%8 pm: 7.5%9 pm: 8.5%10 pm: 9.6%11 pm: 10.9%06121823

Hour of the day (0 to 23)

Letters by local hour, % of letters
12 am7.3%
1 am4.2%
2 am2.7%
3 am1.8%
4 am1.6%
5 am1.2%
6 am1.4%
7 am1.8%
8 am2.1%
9 am2.3%
10 am2.8%
11 am2.8%
12 pm3.3%
1 pm3.1%
2 pm3.2%
3 pm3.1%
4 pm3.3%
5 pm4.0%
6 pm5.2%
7 pm6.4%
8 pm7.5%
9 pm8.5%
10 pm9.6%
11 pm10.9%

Where do love letters come from?

In 24 days, letters came from 162 countries. The Philippines lead with 35.7%, followed by India (16.9%) and Indonesia (11.1%).

In letters from the Philippines, "I love you" appears in 42.0% and the Tagalog "Mahal kita" in 13.4%.

83.4% of letters are written on a phone or tablet: Android 57.8%, iPhone or iPad 25.6%, computer or other 16.6%.

Top 10 countries, % of letters
  • Philippines35.7%
  • India16.9%
  • Indonesia11.1%
  • Brazil3.9%
  • United States3.6%
  • Malaysia2.2%
  • Pakistan1.3%
  • Bangladesh1.1%
  • Mexico1.1%
  • Egypt1.0%
  • Other countries18.8%
  • Unknown3.3%

Do people revise love letters?

21.8% edited their letter at least once after sending it. Of those, 67.0% edited once and 2.7% five times or more. Apology letters are edited most often (23.3%) and friendship letters least (17.6%).

Is there one love song?

No. 4,245 letters had a song attached, using 2,111 different tracks or videos. 67.9% of them were chosen by a single letter. The most used link appears in 55 letters, 1.3% of those with music.

Related: a page with your song

Methodology

Source: the LovePaper production database, letters created on lovepaper.app, with data through November 6, 2026. Each number has its own start date: either the day the field started being recorded, or the day a product change stopped distorting it.

Statistic
Occasions (1, 2)
Date range
August 13, 2026 to November 6, 2026
Letters (n)
84,035
Why it starts there
Until August 12 the form pre-selected "Just because".
Statistic
Length, emoji (3, 4, 7)
Date range
August 24, 2026 to November 6, 2026
Letters (n)
81,738
Why it starts there
The limit went from 2,000 to 3,000 characters on August 23.
Statistic
Phrases in English (5, 6)
Date range
August 24, 2026 to November 6, 2026
Letters (n)
61,062
Why it starts there
Same limit change.
Statistic
Local hour (8)
Date range
October 14, 2026 to November 6, 2026
Letters (n)
15,248
Why it starts there
The country is recorded from October 14.
Statistic
Countries (9)
Date range
October 14, 2026 to November 6, 2026
Letters (n)
24,817
Why it starts there
The country is recorded from October 14.
Statistic
Philippines (10)
Date range
October 14, 2026 to November 6, 2026
Letters (n)
8,863
Why it starts there
The country is recorded from October 14.
Statistic
Device (11)
Date range
August 13, 2026 to November 6, 2026
Letters (n)
84,031
Why it starts there
Same window as occasions.
Statistic
Edits (12)
Date range
August 31, 2026 to November 6, 2026
Letters (n)
78,659
Why it starts there
The edit counter started on August 30.
Statistic
Music (13)
Date range
April 7, 2026 to November 6, 2026
Letters (n)
4,245
Why it starts there
Song links are recorded from April 7.
  • Words are counted by splitting the text on spaces.
  • Language is classified automatically by the share of common words (such as "the", "and", "you") in English, Portuguese, Spanish, German and French. Letters that mix Tagalog and English usually count as English. Rough split: English 75%, Spanish 4%, Portuguese 3%, other or too short 16%.
  • Occasion is the option the writer tapped. In English it reads "Proposal" with a ring icon; in Portuguese it reads "asking someone out", so that category mixes both. Since August 14 the form labels "Anniversary" as the most chosen option.
  • Minimum sample: 1,000 letters per statistic, 5,000 for country and hour, 500 for any subgroup shown.
  • Device comes from the browser's user agent. iPads that identify as a Mac count as computer.
  • For music, the same song on Spotify and on YouTube counts as two links.
  • Not measured: how long a letter takes to write, whether or when it was opened, and Valentine's Day (the data starts in March 2026). Payments are not part of this page.

No letter was read by a person. A script counted behavior and the presence of common phrases. No letter text leaves the database, and nothing here identifies a writer.

Cite this page

The data on this page is published under CC BY 4.0: you can reuse it, including commercially, as long as you credit LovePaper with a link to this page. CC BY 4.0

HTML

<p>Source: <a href="https://lovepaper.app/en/love-letter-statistics">Love Letter Statistics 2026, LovePaper</a> (data through November 6, 2026).</p>

APA

LovePaper. (2026, November 7). Love letter statistics 2026: What 84,000+ real letters show. https://lovepaper.app/en/love-letter-statistics

Download the data

A CSV with every aggregated table on this page. It has no individual letters.

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Editions

  • November 7, 2026: data through November 6, 2026 (current) · CSV

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