How much time do people spend on social media? As of 2025, the average daily social media usage of internet users worldwide amounted to 141 minutes per day, down from 143 minutes in the previous year. Currently, the country with the most time spent on social media per day is Brazil, with online users spending an average of 3 hours and 49 minutes on social media each day. In comparison, the daily time spent with social media in the U.S. was just 2 hours and 16 minutes. Global social media usageCurrently, the global social network penetration rate is 62.3 percent. Northern Europe had an 81.7 percent social media penetration rate, topping the ranking of global social media usage by region. Eastern and Middle Africa closed the ranking with 10.1 and 9.6 percent usage reach, respectively. People access social media for a variety of reasons. Users like to find funny or entertaining content and enjoy sharing photos and videos with friends, but mainly use social media to stay in touch with current events friends. Global impact of social mediaSocial media has a wide-reaching and significant impact on not only online activities but also offline behavior and life in general. During a global online user survey in February 2019, a significant share of respondents stated that social media had increased their access to information, ease of communication, and freedom of expression. On the flip side, respondents also felt that social media had worsened their personal privacy, increased a polarization in politics and heightened everyday distractions.

Cristiano Ronaldo has one of the most popular Instagram accounts as of April 2024.

              The Portuguese footballer is the most-followed person on the photo sharing app platform with 628 million followers. Instagram's own account was ranked first with roughly 672 million followers.

              How popular is Instagram?

              Instagram is a photo-sharing social networking service that enables users to take pictures and edit them with filters. The platform allows users to post and share their images online and directly with their friends and followers on the social network. The cross-platform app reached one billion monthly active users in mid-2018. In 2020, there were over 114 million Instagram users in the United States and experts project this figure to surpass 127 million users in 2023.

              Who uses Instagram?

              Instagram audiences are predominantly young – recent data states that almost 60 percent of U.S. Instagram users are aged 34 years or younger. Fall 2020 data reveals that Instagram is also one of the most popular social media for teens and one of the social networks with the biggest reach among teens in the United States.

              Celebrity influencers on Instagram
              Many celebrities and athletes are brand spokespeople and generate additional income with social media advertising and sponsored content. Unsurprisingly, Ronaldo ranked first again, as the average media value of one of his Instagram posts was 985,441 U.S. dollars.

Facebook is fast approaching 3 billion monthly active users. That’s about 36% of the world’s entire population that log in and use Facebook at least once a month.

Which county has the most Facebook users?

              There are more than 378 million Facebook users in India alone, making it the leading country in terms of Facebook audience size. To put this into context, if India’s Facebook audience were a country then it would be ranked third in terms of largest population worldwide. Apart from India, there are several other markets with more than 100 million Facebook users each: The United States, Indonesia, and Brazil with 193.8 million, 119.05 million, and 112.55 million Facebook users respectively.

              Facebook – the most used social media

              Meta, the company that was previously called Facebook, owns four of the most popular social media platforms worldwide, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Facebook, and Instagram. As of the third quarter of 2021, there were around 3,5 billion cumulative monthly users of the company’s products worldwide. With around 2.9 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most popular social media worldwide. With an audience of this scale, it is no surprise that the vast majority of Facebook’s revenue is generated through advertising.

              Facebook usage by device
              As of July 2021, it was found that 98.5 percent of active users accessed their Facebook account from mobile devices. In fact, almost 81.8 percent of Facebook audiences worldwide access the platform only via mobile phone. Facebook is not only available through mobile browser as the company has published several mobile apps for users to access their products and services. As of the third quarter 2021, the four core Meta products were leading the ranking of most downloaded mobile apps worldwide, with WhatsApp amassing approximately six billion downloads.

Social Media has become a part of our day-to-day routine, keeping users from across the world well-connected through digital platforms. With each passing year, social media is evolving at a rapid speed. With each passing year, the number of social media users is increasing at an immersive speed. Reports also suggest the number of social media users will reach a milestone of 5.85 billion in 2027.

In 2024, 62.6% of the world’s population will access social media, which clearly indicates the dominance of social media platforms in today’s world. In this article, we will examine social media statistics for 2024, uncovering monthly active users, daily time spent by users, most downloaded social media apps, etc.

Facebook and YouTube are still the most used social media platforms today.

Social media platforms are integral to people's lives, offering ways to communicate, create and view content and share information. According to Ofcom, approximately 89% of UK internet users in 2023 used social media apps or sites. Teenagers and young adults are the biggest users, although there is rapid uptake among older age groups. Advertising is the primary revenue source for social media platforms, although subscription-based services are gaining momentum as platforms seek to diversify their incomes. TikTok is the success story of the last few years, becoming the most downloaded app between 2020 and 2022, according to Apptopia. The short-form video platform reported that it averaged revenue growth of over 450% between 2019 and 2022. After Musk's takeover, X, formerly known as Twitter, adjusted its content moderation and allowed previously banned accounts to return. As a result, over 600 advertisers have pulled their ads from the site because of fears their brand may be associated with malcontent. In response to falling ad revenue, X has introduced a subscription-based service which enables users to verify themselves and boosts the number of people who view their tweets. Meta-owned Facebook and Instagram have responded by introducing a similar service. Revenue is expected to grow by 14.3% in 2024-25, constrained by a slowdown in user growth for most major social media platforms. Over the five years through 2024-25, revenue is forecast to expand at a compound annual rate of 32.8% to reach £9.8 billion. Looking forward, regulations relating to how data is collected, stored, and shared will force advertisers and platforms to rethink how they can target their desired demographics. The rising prominence of AI will require the introduction of adequate regulations. The Online Safety Bill sets out new guidelines for social media platforms to abide by, with hefty fines in store for those who do not. Operating costs will swell as platforms look to meet consumers’ expectations, weighing on profit. Over the five years through 2029-30, social media platforms' revenue is projected to climb at an estimated 9.4% to reach £15.4 billion.

The results might surprise you when looking at internet users that are active on social media in each country.

📊 Social Media vs Productivity — Realistic Behavioral Dataset (30,000 Users)

This dataset explores how daily digital habits — including social media usage, screen time, and notification exposure — relate to individual productivity, stress, and well-being.

🔍 What’s Inside?

The dataset contains 30,000 real-world-style records simulating behavioral patterns of people with various jobs, social habits, and lifestyle choices. The goal is to understand how different digital behaviors correlate with perceived and actual productivity.

🧠 Why This Dataset is Valuable

• ✅ Designed for real-world ML workflows
  Includes missing values, noise, and outliers — ideal for practicing data cleaning and preprocessing.

• 🔗 High correlation between target features
  The perceived_productivity_score and actual_productivity_score are strongly correlated, making this dataset suitable for experiments in feature selection and multicollinearity.

• 🛠️ Feature Engineering playground
  Use this dataset to practice feature scaling, encoding, binning, interaction terms, and more.

• 🧪 Perfect for EDA, regression & classification
  You can model productivity, stress, or satisfaction based on behavior patterns and digital exposure.

🧾 Columns & Feature Info

📌 Notes

• Contains NaN values in critical columns (productivity, sleep, stress) for data imputation tasks
• Includes outliers in media usage, coffee intake, and notification count
• Target columns are strongly correlated for multicollinearity testing
• Multi-purpose: regression, classification, clustering, visualization

💡 Use Cases

• Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA)
• Feature engineering pipelines
• Machine learning model benchmarking
• Statistical hypothesis testing
• Burnout and mental health prediction projects

📥 Bonus

👉 Sample notebook coming soon with data cleaning, visualization, and productivity prediction!

As of January 2024, #love was the most used hashtag on Instagram, being included in over two billion posts on the social media platform. #Instagood and #instagram were used over one billion times as of early 2024.

This dataset captures insights from a survey on social media usage across diverse age groups and genders. It includes data on the most used platforms, daily screen time, reasons for usage, preferred content types, and how social media influences buying decisions. Additionally, it reflects users' concerns about privacy and their willingness to reduce usage. The dataset is useful for analyzing digital behavior, content preferences, and the social impact of online platforms. It can support research in marketing, psychology, and digital well-being, offering a snapshot of how people interact with and perceive social media in their daily lives.

As of January 2024, Instagram was slightly more popular with men than women, with men accounting for 50.6 percent of the platform’s global users. Additionally, the social media app was most popular amongst younger audiences, with almost 32 percent of users aged between 18 and 24 years.

              Instagram’s Global Audience

              As of January 2024, Instagram was the fourth most popular social media platform globally, reaching two billion monthly active users (MAU). This number is projected to keep growing with no signs of slowing down, which is not a surprise as the global online social penetration rate across all regions is constantly increasing.
              As of January 2024, the country with the largest Instagram audience was India with 362.9 million users, followed by the United States with 169.7 million users.

              Who is winning over the generations?

              Even though Instagram’s audience is almost twice the size of TikTok’s on a global scale, TikTok has shown itself to be a fierce competitor, particularly amongst younger audiences. TikTok was the most downloaded mobile app globally in 2022, generating 672 million downloads. As of 2022, Generation Z in the United States spent more time on TikTok than on Instagram monthly.

The average person has 8-9 social media accounts. This has doubled since 2013, when the average person just had 4-5 accounts.

The report provides a snapshot of the social media usage trends amongst online Canadian adults based on an online survey of 1500 participants. Canada continues to be one of the most connected countries in the world. An overwhelming majority of online Canadian adults (94%) have an account on at least one social media platform. However, the 2022 survey results show that the COVID-19 pandemic has ushered in some changes in how and where Canadians are spending their time on social media. Dominant platforms such as Facebook, messaging apps and YouTube are still on top but are losing ground to newer platforms such as TikTok and more niche platforms such as Reddit and Twitch.

56.8% of the world’s total population is active on social media.

The Reddit Subreddit Dataset by Dataplex offers a comprehensive and detailed view of Reddit’s vast ecosystem, now enhanced with appended AI-generated columns that provide additional insights and categorization. This dataset includes data from over 2.1 million subreddits, making it an invaluable resource for a wide range of analytical applications, from social media analysis to market research.

Dataset Overview:

This dataset includes detailed information on subreddit activities, user interactions, post frequency, comment data, and more. The inclusion of AI-generated columns adds an extra layer of analysis, offering sentiment analysis, topic categorization, and predictive insights that help users better understand the dynamics of each subreddit.

2.1 Million Subreddits with Enhanced AI Insights: The dataset covers over 2.1 million subreddits and now includes AI-enhanced columns that provide: - Sentiment Analysis: AI-driven sentiment scores for posts and comments, allowing users to gauge community mood and reactions. - Topic Categorization: Automated categorization of subreddit content into relevant topics, making it easier to filter and analyze specific types of discussions. - Predictive Insights: AI models that predict trends, content virality, and user engagement, helping users anticipate future developments within subreddits.

Sourced Directly from Reddit:

All social media data in this dataset is sourced directly from Reddit, ensuring accuracy and authenticity. The dataset is updated regularly, reflecting the latest trends and user interactions on the platform. This ensures that users have access to the most current and relevant data for their analyses.

Key Features:

• Subreddit Metrics: Detailed data on subreddit activity, including the number of posts, comments, votes, and user participation.
• User Engagement: Insights into how users interact with content, including comment threads, upvotes/downvotes, and participation rates.
• Trending Topics: Track emerging trends and viral content across the platform, helping you stay ahead of the curve in understanding social media dynamics.
• AI-Enhanced Analysis: Utilize AI-generated columns for sentiment analysis, topic categorization, and predictive insights, providing a deeper understanding of the data.

Use Cases:

• Social Media Analysis: Researchers and analysts can use this dataset to study online behavior, track the spread of information, and understand how content resonates with different audiences.
• Market Research: Marketers can leverage the dataset to identify target audiences, understand consumer preferences, and tailor campaigns to specific communities.
• Content Strategy: Content creators and strategists can use insights from the dataset to craft content that aligns with trending topics and user interests, maximizing engagement.
• Academic Research: Academics can explore the dynamics of online communities, studying everything from the spread of misinformation to the formation of online subcultures.

Data Quality and Reliability:

The Reddit Subreddit Dataset emphasizes data quality and reliability. Each record is carefully compiled from Reddit’s vast database, ensuring that the information is both accurate and up-to-date. The AI-generated columns further enhance the dataset's value, providing automated insights that help users quickly identify key trends and sentiments.

Integration and Usability:

The dataset is provided in a format that is compatible with most data analysis tools and platforms, making it easy to integrate into existing workflows. Users can quickly import, analyze, and utilize the data for various applications, from market research to academic studies.

User-Friendly Structure and Metadata:

The data is organized for easy navigation and analysis, with metadata files included to help users identify relevant subreddits and data points. The AI-enhanced columns are clearly labeled and structured, allowing users to efficiently incorporate these insights into their analyses.

Ideal For:

• Data Analysts: Conduct in-depth analyses of subreddit trends, user engagement, and content virality. The dataset’s extensive coverage and AI-enhanced insights make it an invaluable tool for data-driven research.
• Marketers: Use the dataset to better understand your target audience, tailor campaigns to specific interests, and track the effectiveness of marketing efforts across Reddit.
• Researchers: Explore the social dynamics of online communities, analyze the spread of ideas and information, and study the impact of digital media on public discourse, all while leveraging AI-generated insights.

This dataset is an essential resource for anyone looking to understand the intricacies of Reddit's vast ecosystem, offering the data and AI-enhanced insights needed to drive informed decisions and strategies across various fields. Whether you’re tracking emerging trends, analyzing user behavior, or conduc...

As of April 2024, around 16.5 percent of global active Instagram users were men between the ages of 18 and 24 years. More than half of the global Instagram population worldwide was aged 34 years or younger.

              Teens and social media

              As one of the biggest social networks worldwide, Instagram is especially popular with teenagers. As of fall 2020, the photo-sharing app ranked third in terms of preferred social network among teenagers in the United States, second to Snapchat and TikTok. Instagram was one of the most influential advertising channels among female Gen Z users when making purchasing decisions. Teens report feeling more confident, popular, and better about themselves when using social media, and less lonely, depressed and anxious.
              Social media can have negative effects on teens, which is also much more pronounced on those with low emotional well-being. It was found that 35 percent of teenagers with low social-emotional well-being reported to have experienced cyber bullying when using social media, while in comparison only five percent of teenagers with high social-emotional well-being stated the same. As such, social media can have a big impact on already fragile states of mind.

Today the average time spent on social media is 2 hours and 24 minutes today for people aged 16 to 64.

As of April 2025, almost 32 percent of global Instagram audiences were aged between 25 and 34 years, and 29.5 percent of users were aged between 25 and 34 years. Overall, 16.3 percent of users belonged to the 35 to 44 year age group. Instagram users With roughly one billion monthly active users, Instagram belongs to the most popular social networks worldwide. The social photo sharing app is especially popular in India and in the United States, which have respectively 413.85 million and 171.7 million Instagram users each. Instagram features One of the most popular features of Instagram is Stories. Users can post photos and videos to their Stories stream and the content is live for others to view for 24 hours before it disappears. In January 2019, the company reported that there were 500 million daily active Instagram Stories users. Instagram Stories directly competes with Snapchat, another photo sharing app that initially became famous due to it’s “vanishing photos” feature. As of the first quarter of 2025, Snapchat had 460 million daily active users.

Overview

This data set consists of links to social network items for 34 different forensic events that took place between August 14th, 2018 and January 06th, 2021. The majority of the text and images are from Twitter (a minor part is from Flickr, Facebook and Google+), and every video is from YouTube.

Data Collection

We used Social Tracker (https://github.com/MKLab-ITI/mmdemo-dockerized), along with the social medias' APIs, to gather most of the collections. For a minor part, we used Twint (https://github.com/twintproject/twint). In both cases, we provided keywords related to the event to receive the data.

It is important to mention that, in procedures like this one, usually only a small fraction of the collected data is in fact related to the event and useful for a further forensic analysis.

Content

We have data from 34 events, and for each of them we provide the files:

items_full.csv: It contains links to any social media post that was collected.

images.csv: Enlists the images collected. In some files there is a field called "ItemUrl", that refers to the social network post (e.g., a tweet) that mentions that media.

video.csv: Urls of YouTube videos that were gathered about the event.

video_tweet.csv: This file contains IDs of tweets and IDs of YouTube videos. A tweet whose ID is in this file has a video in its content. In turn, the link of a Youtube video whose ID is in this file was mentioned by at least one collected tweet. Only two collections have this file.

description.txt: Contains some standard information about the event, and possibly some comments about any specific issue related to it.

In fact, most of the collections do not have all the files above. Such an issue is due to changes in our collection procedure throughout the time of this work.

Events

We divided the events into six groups. They are,

1. Fire

• Devastating fire is the main issue of the event, therefore most of the informative pictures show flames or burned constructions

• 14 Events

2. Collapse

• Most of the relevant images depict collapsed buildings, bridges, etc. (not caused by fire).

• 5 Events

3. Shooting

• Likely images of guns and police officers. Few or no destruction of the environment.

• 5 Events

4. Demonstration

• Plethora of people on the streets. Possibly some problem took place on that, but in most cases the demonstration is the actual event.

• 7 Events

5. Collision

• Traffic collision. Pictures of damaged vehicles on an urban landscape. Possibly there are images with victims on the street.

• 1 Event

6. Flood

• Events that range from fierce rain to a tsunami. Many pictures depict water.

• 2 Events

We enlist the events in the file recod-ai-events-dataset-list.pdf

Media Content

Due to the terms of use from the social networks, we do not make publicly available the texts, images and videos that were collected. However, we can provide some extra piece of media content related to one (or more) events by contacting the authors.

Funding

DéjàVu thematic project, São Paulo Research Foundation (grants 2017/12646-3, 2018/18264-8 and 2020/02241-9)