(BigStock Photo)

Well, these are some discouraging numbers — both the unidentified robocall variety and just how many of them there are in the U.S.

In its new “State of the Phone Call” report, Seattle-based Hiya, providers of protection against nuisance calls, found that those types of calls grew to 54.6 billion in 2019 — a 108-percent rise from the previous year.

Consumers receive 14 spam calls per month, on average, according to Hiya, and as a result Americans refuse to pick up the majority of incoming calls.

“The 108 percent growth of spam calls in 2019, and the fact that only half of all calls made to mobile phones are now picked up, speak to the impact this epidemic continues to have on Americans,” Hiya CEO Alex Algard said in a news release. “We applaud the joint efforts of the House and Senate who have been pushing hard over the past year for the Pallone-Thune TRACED Act to become law, and look forward to working alongside our carrier partners in 2020 to restore trust in the mobile call.”

The anti-robocall bill has passed the House of Representatives and will seek approval in the Senate as the government looks to provide an answer to why we don’t answer. According to Congressional leaders, the TRACED Act “will require telephone carriers to verify calls and allow robocalls to be blocked in a consistent and transparent way, all at no extra charge to consumers.  The agreement also gives the FCC and law enforcement the ability to quickly go after scammers.”

Founded in 2016 and spun out of Whitepages, Hiya says its spam-detection platform protects nearly 100 million users from unwanted scam and nuisance calls globally.

Here are some more key numbers from Hiya from State of the Phone Call report:

Average calls per month:

  • On average, people make and receive a total of 218 calls per month
  • Of those 218 total calls, 117 are calls received and 101 are calls made
  • Of those calls received, 39%, or 46 of them, are from numbers “not saved to contacts”

Average incoming call pick-up rates:

  • 47 percent of all calls received are answered
  • 71 percent of calling numbers that are “saved in contacts” are answered
  • 65 percent of calls identified with a business name are answered
  • 18 percent of unidentified calls are answered
  • 9 percent of calls identified as spam are answered

Typical duration of phone calls:

  • Spam calls: 45 seconds
  • Unidentified calls: 30 seconds
  • Identified calls from businesses: 2 minutes and 58 seconds
  • Calls from a user’s contact list: 5 minutes and 28 seconds

Top business industries calling mobile phones ranked in order of total call volume:

  • Health Care: doctor’s offices, hospitals, pharmacies
  • Financial Services: banks, credit unions, debt collectors
  • Insurance: home, life, health, auto
  • Government: schools, government agencies
  • Automotive: car dealerships, car repair
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