If you are a member of a parent messaging group, how many messages do you estimate you get from all these groups combined in an average week?
1 to 5
31 %
6 to 10
21 %
11 to 15
16 to 20
12 % 11 %
21 to 30 31 to 50
51 to 100
101 to 200
More than 200
Don ' t know
6 % 6 %
4 %
1 % 2 %
7 %
Half of parents who are members of messaging groups get 8 + messages a day
Sample: 6,053 parents in England( 3,552), Scotland( 1,333), Wales( 860) and Northern Ireland( 308) who have at least one child aged 4 to 18 in school Base: All UK parents who are part of parent messaging groups( 2,716) weighted
• 43 % of parents are part of parent messaging groups linked to their child’ s school, such as WhatsApp. 45 % of parents are not members of any parent messaging groups for their school
• 59 % of primary school parents are a member of at least one parent messaging group, almost a quarter( 24 %) are in two or more messaging groups
• Only a third( 35 %) of secondary school parents are involved in parent messaging groups. 14 % are members of at least two groups
• One in six( 17 %) parents are part of more than one messaging group for their child’ s school
• Parents on messaging groups receive, on average, 21 messages a week from these groups
• Parents in London( 41), with a child at an independent school( 34), in the most affluent households( 35) and ethnic minority parents( 33) receive more messages than other parents each week
• While dads are less likely to be members of messaging groups linked to school than mums( 37 % vs. 50 %), those dads receive 27 messages a week from these groups compared to mums getting 17 per week
• More than 100 million messages are sent across parent WhatsApp groups each week 7
• Almost a third( 31 %) of parents on messaging apps say they get too many messages, but the majority( 59 %) say they get the right amount
7
43 % of 10,996,420 parents are receiving messages on parent messaging groups = 4,728,461 parents. The average number of messages is 21.17 per week. 21.17 * 4728461 = 100,101,511 messages
44 THE NATIONAL PARENT SURVEY 2026