Q.

2021. We all have been through a lot. So much for celebrating the end of a calamitous 2020. How did we express our considerable emotions during this last year? Which emojis were we most likely to use when communicating with others?

A.

That’s a question that interested the Unicode Consortium: ‘the not-for-profit organization responsible for digitizing the world’s language’. They find that 92% of people online use emojis.

Of the 3,663 emojis under consideration, which did the Unicode Consortium find people used most in 2021? Surprisingly, perhaps, it’s the same #1 emoji as 2019: Tears of Joy. 😂 Tears of Joy and the second most popular emoji, red heart ❤️, are by far the most commonly used emojis.

Most Frequently Used Emojis. 2021
i. 😂
ii. ❤️
iii. 🤣
iv. 👍
v. 😭
vi. 🙏
vii. 😘
viii. 🥰
ix. 😍
x. 😊

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Overall, how did emoji use in 2021 differ from 2019 – the last time they did their in-depth analysis. The Unicode Consortium offers a chart. Pleading Face is our clear winner for Most Improved. What have we been pleading for in 2021?

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Emojis 2019 – 2021

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The people at Unicode also identified the most common emojis in each sub-category, such as:

Most popular emoji per category
Animal: 🦋
Body Parts: 💪🏼
Emotion: 💋
Clothing: 👑
Person-Sport: 🤸‍♂️
Plant-Flower: 💐
Transport-Air: 🚀

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What is the least popular category? Sheldon Cooper would be shocked to discover it is flags, particularly country flags. These country flags boast 258 emoji, but are little used. And can we show some future hype for the least used individual emojis in otherwise popular categories? In Clothing, for instance, the Unicode Consortium found little love for clutch bag 👝, lab coat 🥼, and flat shoe 🥿 .

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www.justcurious.ca

Header Photo: Ryan Johns

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