Social Media Statistics (How Many People Use Social Media?)

Social media is a worldwide phenomenon in contrast to another. 

As of this 12 months, over half the world’s inhabitants has social media presence—a mighty feat contemplating the know-how has solely been round a number of quick many years.

However what does the present social media panorama appear to be? Precisely how many individuals use social media? And is there nonetheless room for additional progress?

We’ve compiled a roundup of over 100 eye-opening social media statistics to reply these questions and extra. 

From right here on out, we’ll be stats on all the preferred social media platforms and revealing some unbelievable insights in regards to the individuals who use social networks, why they use them, and the way they work together with their favourite platforms.

Prepared? Let’s get began!

Roughly 4.62 billion individuals use social media globally. And even though this meteoric determine already represents over half of the inhabitants of the earth, it’s nonetheless rising. Based on the most recent projections, there might be nearly 6 billion social media customers by 2027.

What proportion of the inhabitants makes use of social media?

The worldwide inhabitants at the moment stands at 7.91 billion, which suggests 58.4% of the inhabitants makes use of social media.

That determine is anticipated to rise to 74% by 2026, in keeping with projections, as extra individuals all over the world get entry to the web.

There are at the moment solely 4.95 billion world web customers, which suggests 93.3% of the on-line world inhabitants makes use of social media. That is arguably a extra correct illustration of social media’s true world penetration fee.

It’s additionally attention-grabbing to notice that 74.8% of the worldwide inhabitants over 18 makes use of social media. Given that the majority social platforms have minimal age necessities, it is sensible that once we look solely on the grownup inhabitants, penetration charges can be increased.

What number of accounts do social media customers have?

Social media customers have 7.5 accounts on totally different platforms that they log into month-to-month, on common. Nonetheless, this varies sharply primarily based on age and placement. Youthful customers usually tend to have a large number of social accounts, whereas older customers sometimes have fewer.

Sources: Hootsuite, Statista⁴, Statista⁵, Hootsuite²

Even supposing social media is already ubiquitous all over the world, the variety of social media customers remains to be on the rise. Listed below are some social media statistics that illustrate this progress.

How briskly is social media use rising?

The variety of social media customers grew by 10.1% over the past 12 months, and the present social media person progress fee is quicker than it was pre-pandemic. There have been round 420 million extra social media customers in 2022 in comparison with 2021. 

Social media person progress over time (YOY change):

Right here’s how the variety of social media customers has grown over the past decade:

• 2022 – 4.62b (+10.1%)
• 2021 – 4.20b (+13.2%) 
• 2020 – 3.71b (+7.2%)
• 2019 – 3.46b (+8.3%)
• 2018 – 3.20b (+14.6%)
• 2017 – 2.79b (+20.9%)
• 2016 – 2.31b (+11%)
• 2015 – 2.08b (+11.9%)
• 2014 – 1.86b (+7.9%)
• 2013 – 1.72b (+16%)
• 2012 – 1.48b

What’s the fastest-growing social media platform?

Unsurprisingly, TikTok was the fastest-growing social media community in 2021, with a YOY progress fee of 18.3%. 

And the 12 months earlier than was much more spectacular: The variety of TikTok customers grew by a mindblowing 87.1% in 2020. This meteoric progress has secured TikTok’s place within the cultural zeitgeist and it now ranks as one of many largest social media platforms. 

Its success can little doubt primarily be attributed to the apparent shopper demand for the form of short-form video content material TikTok is known for, however its speedy progress could have additionally been accelerated by the worldwide pandemic, which induced a whole bunch of tens of millions of shoppers to show to new types of digital leisure at house.

Reddit is the second fastest-growing social media platform, with a powerful 14.4% year-over-year progress fee. Like TikTok, 2020 was an particularly good 12 months for Reddit, when its person base grew by 25.9%.

Social media person progress fee by platform (YOY):

• TikTok – 18.3%
• Reddit – 14.4%
• LinkedIn – 4.2%
• Instagram – 3.7%
• Pinterest – 3.1%
• Snapchat – 2.6%
• Fb – 0.8%
• Twitter – 0.2%

Sources: Hootsuite, eMarketer

Connecting could be very a lot nonetheless the center of social media. The info reveals that 47.6% of individuals use social media to keep up a correspondence with their household and pals, making this the primary use case.

High 10 causes individuals use social media

Listed below are another in style causes individuals use social media, in keeping with social media statistics from Hootsuite:

1. 47.6% use social media to keep up a correspondence with household and pals
2. 36.3% use social media to fill their spare time
3. 35.1% use social media to learn information tales
4. 31.6% use social media to discover content material
5. 29.5% use social media to see what’s being talked about
6. 27.7% use social media to discover inspiration for issues to do and purchase
7. 26.3% use social media to discover merchandise to buy
8. 24.5% use social media to share and focus on opinions with others
9. 23.9% use social media to make new contacts
10. 23.8% use social media to watch reside streams

High 5 causes Gen Z use social media

Causes for utilizing social media are likely to range throughout generations. Listed below are the largest causes Gen Z use social media, in keeping with a survey by GWI:

1. 48% use it to keep up a correspondence with pals/household
2. 43% use it to fill their spare time
3. 39% use it to discover content material
4. 35% use it to see what’s trending
5. 33% use it to learn information tales

High 5 causes Child Boomers use social media

And for comparability, listed below are the principle causes Child Boomers use social media, in keeping with the identical survey:

1. 54% use it to keep up a correspondence with pals/household
2. 36% use it to learn information tales
3. 28% use it to fill their spare time
4. 21% use it to discover merchandise to buy
5. 21% use it to share/focus on opinions with others

Sources: Hootsuite, GWI

Web customers spend 2 hours 27 minutes utilizing social media per day, on common. 

That’s a rise of 1.4% year-over-year and over 50% longer than the common time spent on social media in 2013 when it was simply 1 hour 37 minutes per day.

It’s additionally nearly half an hour greater than the common time spent studying press media day by day, and nearly an hour greater than time spent listening to music streaming companies. In whole, individuals spend over a 3rd of the overall time utilizing the web on social media.

Which nation spends essentially the most time on social media?

Time spent utilizing social media varies considerably by nation. Regardless of having one of many lowest social media adoption charges, social media customers in Nigeria spend essentially the most time on social networks: 4 hours 7 minutes per day, on common

On the opposite finish of the size, individuals in Japan spend the least time on social media, clocking it at simply 51 minutes per day, on common

And within the USA, individuals spend 2 hours 14 minutes utilizing social media on common

Which era spends essentially the most time on social media?

Gen Z spends extra time on social media than another era, and the period of time customers spend on social media per day appears to inversely correlate with age. 

16-24-year-olds spend longer than another age group on social media. On common, males aged between 16 and 24 spend 2 hours 43 minutes and females in the identical age vary spend 3 hours 13 minutes on social media per day.

55-64-year-olds spend much less time on social media than another age group. On common, males aged between 55 and 64 spend 1 hour 18 minutes and females in the identical age vary spend 1 hour 33 minutes on social media per day.

Which social media platform do individuals spend essentially the most time on?

Customers spend extra time on YouTube than on another platform. The typical particular person spends 23.7 hours on YouTube each month.

Fb and TikTok rank in joint second place, with the common particular person utilizing these platforms for round 19.6 hours each month. WhatsApp ranked third with a mean utilization time of 18.6 hours monthly.

Sources: Hootsuite

Subsequent, let’s have a look at some social media statistics that inform us extra in regards to the individuals who use social networks and the way utilization varies throughout totally different demographics.

Social media use by gender

There are extra male than feminine social media customers. Globally, 53.9% of social media customers are male, in comparison with 46.1% feminine. 

Nonetheless, this varies relying on the nation. There are extra feminine social media customers within the US than male, for instance.

Social media use by age

The most important age group of social media customers is 20-29. This age group makes up 32.2% of all social media customers. Right here’s a breakdown of social media use throughout age ranges.

• 13 to 19-year-olds – 13.1%
• 20 to 29-year-olds – 32.2%
• 30 to 39-year-olds – 22.2%
• 40 to 49-year-olds – 14.4%
• 50 to 59-year-olds – 9.8%
• 60+ year-olds – 8.4%

Sources: Hootsuite

China has extra social media customers than another nation, however once we think about inhabitants sizes, the information tells a unique story. North America (the area) and Brunei (the nation) have the very best variety of social media customers as a proportion of their whole inhabitants (i.e. social media penetration fee).

Which nation has essentially the most social media customers?

China has essentially the most social media customers of any nation, with 1.02 billion social media customers as of 2022. India had the second most social media customers of any nation, at round 755 million. And the US ranked a distant third, with round 302 million customers.

This isn’t shocking on condition that China, India, and the US are the primary, second, and third most populous international locations.

Social media penetration by nation

We are able to calculate a rustic’s social media penetration fee by dividing the overall variety of social media customers in that nation by its whole inhabitants. The social media penetration fee signifies how ‘in style’ social media is inside a given nation.

Brunei has the very best social media penetration fee of any nation at 116.5%. Notice that this implies there are extra social media customers than residents in Brunei, which appears nonsensical.

This statistical oddity is generally as a result of duplicate and ‘pretend’ social media accounts. In different phrases, the variety of social media customers in Brunei (and in different international locations with penetration charges exceeding 100%) probably doesn’t characterize distinctive people. Variations between census knowledge and resident populations additionally contribute to the excessive penetration fee.

High 10 international locations by social media penetration:

• Brunei – 116.5%
• UAE – 106.1%
• Cayman Islands – 100.8%
• Malta – 10.8%
• Cyprus – 100.3%
• Qatar – 99.8%
• Guam – 99.8%
• Palau – 98.6%
• Aruba – 97.5%
• Iceland – 96.2%

The bottom social media adoption fee (excluding North Korea) is in Eritrea, the place the overall variety of social media accounts is the same as lower than 0.3% of the inhabitants. Different low adoption international locations are Niger (2.5%), Central African Republic (2.8%), and Chad (3.3%).

Social media penetration by area

If we broaden it out to take a look at bigger areas, fairly than particular person international locations, North America has the very best social media penetration fee at 82%. And Oceania has the bottom penetration fee at 66%.

• North America – 82%
• Central America – 73%
• Southern America – 79%
• Caribbean – 55%
• Northern Europe – 85%
• Western Europe – 84%
• Southern Europe – 76%
• Jap Europe – 70%
• Northern Africa – 56%
• Western Africa – 16%
• Center Africa – 8%
• Southern Africa – 45%
• Jap Africa – 10%
• Western Asia – 70%
• Central Asia – 33%
• Southern Asia – 34%
• Jap Asia – 69%
• South-Jap Asia – 72%
• Oceania – 66%

Sources: Hootsuite, Statista¹⁰

Fb remains to be the preferred social media platform on earth with 2.9 billion month-to-month lively customers (MAUs). Nonetheless, it’s rising extra slowly than most of its opponents, who’re catching up rapidly. And it’s not the individuals’s ‘favourite’ platform—that title belongs to WhatsApp.

Fascinating statistics about Fb:

• Fb is the third most-visited web site on the planet, in keeping with Semrush knowledge from November 2021, with 11.74 billion visits
• Fb was the second most-searched question on Google in 2021
• Over a billion Fb customers have interaction with teams commonly
• 87% of social media customers don’t perceive what the Fb Metaverse is

What number of customers does every social media community have?

Right here’s the variety of customers every social media community has primarily based on the most recent out there knowledge on the time of writing:

• Fb – 2.9 billion
• YouTube –  2.5 billion
• WhatsApp – 2 billion
• Instagram – 1.5 billion
• WeChat – 1.3 billion
• TikTok – 1 billion
• FB Messenger – 988 million
• Douyin – 600 million
• QQ – 574 million
• Sina Weibo – 573 million
• Twititer – 217 million
• Snapchat – 347 million
• Pinterest – 433 million

What’s the most downloaded social media app?

TikTok was the world’s most downloaded social media app final 12 months, with 656 million downloads in 2021. That surpassed all Meta-owned social media cell apps.

Instagram got here second with 545 million downloads. Fb ranked third (416 million), Whatsapp fourth (395 million), and Chinese language super-app WeChat fifth (110 million).

What’s the finest social media platform?

If we take into account the ‘finest’ social media platform to be the one most social media customers take into account their favourite, then WhatsApp comes out on prime. 

15.7% of social media customers in a latest survey mentioned WhatsApp is their ‘favourite platform’, which was increased than another platform. Instagram got here second at 14.8%, and Fb was third at 14.5%

Nonetheless, person favorites range by age. Amongst youthful customers, Instagram was overwhelmingly the favourite, with 15.6% of 16-24-year-olds and 17.8% of 25-34-year-olds voting it their favourite. 

Sources: Hootsuite, Hootsuite², Statista¹, Twitter report, Statista⁹, Statista¹⁰

Fb is the most-used social media platform by entrepreneurs and the best, with the best ROIs. The highest cause entrepreneurs use social media is to spice up model consciousness, and engagement is broadly thought of to be an important metric to trace.

How a lot is spent on social media promoting?

$153 billion was spent on social media promoting in 2021. That’s 33.1% (nearly a 3rd) of the overall world digital advert spend. Furthermore, the price of social media advert impressions has risen by 20% over the past 12 months.

And we are able to anticipate much more to be spent on social media promoting. Based on a survey of 18,100 entrepreneurs in 2021, 51.4% of entrepreneurs mentioned they plan to extend paid social spend in 2022. 

The quantity spent on social media promoting per person was $28.3 USD in 2020. That is projected to extend to 40 USD by 2025.

Which social media platforms do entrepreneurs use?

Fb is essentially the most generally used social media platform by entrepreneurs worldwide. Based on a latest report, 93% of entrepreneurs use Fb. Compared, solely 78% use Instagram, which was the second most-used social community by entrepreneurs.

Which social media platforms are handiest?

When requested what social platforms entrepreneurs take into account handiest, 62% of entrepreneurs mentioned Fb, and 49% mentioned Instagram. This makes Fb and Instagram the 2 handiest social platforms for reaching enterprise objectives general.

Nonetheless, that perceived effectiveness decreased considerably in comparison with final 12 months, when 78% of Entrepreneurs mentioned Fb and 70% mentioned Instagram.

In the meantime, TikTok’s perceived effectiveness grew considerably. Final 12 months, solely 3% of entrepreneurs mentioned it was the best social media platform for advertising, however this 12 months, that rocketed as much as 24%. TikTok nonetheless has an extended approach to go to catch as much as Fb however entrepreneurs are starting to 

Snapchat can also be gaining popularity amongst entrepreneurs. In 2020, only one% of entrepreneurs mentioned Snapchat was the best platform, however this elevated to 13% this 12 months.

High social media advertising objectives

Based on a Meltwater examine, the highest aim of social media advertising (SMM) is to boost model consciousness. This was the aim of over 82% of surveyed entrepreneurs.

High 5 SMM objectives:

1. Increase model consciousness – 82%
2. Improve model engagement – 62%
3. Purchase new prospects – 59%
4. Improve net visitors – 48%
5. Increase gross sales – 37%

High social media advertising metrics to trace

Over 78% of entrepreneurs have a look at engagement to measure the effectiveness of their social media campaigns, making it the #1 social media advertising metric to trace.

High 5 metrics social media entrepreneurs observe:

1. Engagement – 78.71%
2. Followers – 71.04%
3. Web site visitors – 63.20%
4. Advertising and marketing leads -31.4%
5. Popularity –  26.13%

High social media challenges for manufacturers

The largest issue 54% of manufacturers face in social media advertising is discovering the time and sources to do it. This makes it the #1 prime problem.

1. Discovering time and sources – 54%
2. Measuring affect – 46%
3. Gaining followers – 39%
4. Creating content material – 38%
5. Proving worth – 31%

Social media advertising ROI

There’s at the moment no dependable social media statistics out there on the common return on funding (ROI) of social media advertising. Nonetheless, the excellent news is that 83% of entrepreneurs now say they’re assured in quantifying the ROI of their social media advertising efforts. That is up from simply 68% final 12 months

21% of surveyed entrepreneurs mentioned Fb has the very best ROI of any platform, 18% mentioned Instagram, 14% mentioned Linkedin, 12% mentioned TikTok, and 11% mentioned YouTube.

Different social media advertising statistics

• 57% of manufacturers say social media has develop into extra necessary as a result of Covid-19
• 55% of entrepreneurs say their social advertisements technique is absolutely built-in with the remainder of their advertising actions.
• 48% of entrepreneurs strongly agree that social listening has elevated in worth for his or her group.
• 65% of entrepreneurs have absolutely built-in natural and paid social efforts.
• The worldwide social commerce trade is value over half a trillion USD

Sources: Hootsuite, Hootsuite², Meltwater, Statista², Statista³

Lastly, let’s have a look at some social media statistics that inform us how a lot income every social media platform earns.

Which social media platform has the very best income?

Fb has the very best income of any social media channel. The corporate earned over 117 billion USD in 2021—greater than each different platform mixed in 2021. Instagram got here second at $47.6 billion.

How a lot annual income does every social community earn?

• Fb – $117 billion
• Instagram – $47.6 billion
• YouTube – $28.8 billion
• WeChat (Tencent) – $17.4 billion
• Whatsapp – $8.7 billion
• Twitter – $5.1 billion
• TikTok – $4.6 billion
• Snapchat – $4.1 billion 
• Pinterest – $2.6 billion

*The info above reveals the approximate reported annual income of every social media firm in 2021, in keeping with one of the best out there social media statistics we might discover.

Which social media platform has the very best ARPU?

Fb additionally has the very best ARPU (annual income per person), at $40.34. Instagram has the second-highest ARPU at $32.16.

What’s the ARPU of every social community?

1. Fb – $40.34
2. Instagram – $32.16
3. Twitter – $23.09
4. WeChat (Tencent) – $13.88
5. Snapchat – $12.88
6. YouTube – $11.52
7. Pinterest – $6
8. TikTok – $4.6
9. WhatsApp – $4.35

*We calculated ARPU by dividing every platform’s annual income by its whole variety of lively customers (primarily based on one of the best out there knowledge that we might discover). These figures must be thought of estimations fairly than exact numbers.

Sources: Statista⁶, Business of Apps¹, Macro Trends, Social Media Today, Business of Apps², Business of Apps³, Bloomberg, Statista⁷, Statista⁸

Closing ideas

That concludes our roundup of social media statistics. We hope you discovered one thing attention-grabbing!

The important thing takeaway is that social media is now utilized by over half the world’s inhabitants and nonetheless rising. However whereas Fb continues to have extra customers than another platform, new rising platforms like TikTok are shaking issues up.

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