A new study from the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project indicates that 83 percent of American adults own mobile phones and that 73 percent of them send and receive text messages. Of the percentage polled that text, nearly a third of them prefer to send and receive text messages instead of talking on the phone.

It comes as no surprise that young adults are the most active texters. Pew says that phone owners between the ages of 18 and 24 collectively send and receive an average of nearly 110 messages on a normal day, or more than 3,200 texts per month. 12 percent of users claim to send or receive more than 200 messages per day, or over 6,000 messages a month. 95 percent of users in this age group own a mobile phone and 97 percent of them use text messaging.

Age groups aside, texters as a whole send or receive an average of 41.5 texts on a regular day; a number that researchers say hasn't changed much from the previous year. Also unchanged is the number of phone calls that mobile phone owners make or receive in a single day, which remains at 12.

The study also breaks down text messaging by gender, race or ethnicity, household income and education level. The survey found that African Americans and Hispanics text rates are significantly higher than whites. Additionally, text rates are higher among individuals with lower incomes and lesser education.

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