According to an official Apple press release, the company has announced that customers have downloaded over 40 billion apps, with nearly 20 billion in 2012 alone from the App Store.

This figure includes unique downloads only, excluding any re-downloads and updates.

The release states that:

Currently, the App Store as over 500 million active accounts and had a record-breaking December with over two billion downloads during the month. Apple’s incredible developer community has created over 775,000 apps for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users worldwide, and developers have been paid over seven billion dollars by Apple.

Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services says that “It has been an incredible year for the iOS developer community. Developers have made over seven billion dollars on the App Store, and we continue to invest in providing them with the best ecosystem so they can create the most innovative apps in the world.”

The App Store offers more than 775,000 apps to iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users in 155 countries around the world, with more than 300,000 native iPad apps available.