A new study has estimated ow much digital information# is zipping around–hint: it’s a lot.

The report, assembled by the technology research firm IDC, sought to account for all the ones and zeros that make up photos, videos, email, Web pages, instant messages, phone calls and other digital content cascading through our world today. The researchers assumed that an average digital file gets replicated three times.

Add it all up and IDC determined that the world generated 161 billion gigabytes–161 exabytes–of digital information last year.