Market leader Facebook was the first social network to surpass one billion registered accounts and currently sits at more than three billion monthly active users. Meta Platforms owns four of the biggest social media platforms, all with more than one billion monthly active users each: Facebook (core platform), WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram. In the third quarter of 2023, Facebook reported around four billion monthly core Family product users. The United States and China account for the most high-profile social platforms Most top ranked social networks with more than 100 million users originated in the United States, but services like Chinese social networks WeChat, QQ or video sharing app Douyin have also garnered mainstream appeal in their respective regions due to local context and content. Douyin’s popularity has led to the platform releasing an international version of its network: a little app called TikTok. How many people use social media? The leading social networks are usually available in multiple languages and enable users to connect with friends or people across geographical, political, or economic borders. In 2025, social networking sites are estimated to reach 5.42 billion users and these figures are still expected to grow as mobile device usage and mobile social networks increasingly gain traction in previously underserved markets.

As of February 2025, it was found that men between the ages of 25 and 34 years made up Facebook's largest audience, accounting for 18.5 percent of global users. Additionally, Facebook's second-largest audience base could be found with men aged 18 to 24 years. Facebook connects the world Founded in 2004 and going public in 2012, Facebook is one of the biggest internet companies in the world with influence that goes beyond social media. It is widely considered as one of the Big Four tech companies, along with Google, Apple, and Amazon (all together known under the acronym GAFA). Facebook is the most popular social network worldwide and the company also owns three other billion-user properties: mobile messaging apps WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, as well as photo-sharing app Instagram. Facebook usersThe vast majority of Facebook users connect to the social network via mobile devices. This is unsurprising, as Facebook has many users in mobile-first online markets. Currently, India ranks first in terms of Facebook audience size with 378 million users. The United States, Brazil, and Indonesia also all have more than 100 million Facebook users each.

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.

Facebook probably needs no introduction; nonetheless, here is a quick history of the company. The world’s biggest and most-famous social network was launched by Mark Zuckerberg while he was a...

The average Facebook user spends about 19.6 per month on Facebook every month. This works out to be about 39 minutes per day.

56.5% of Facebook users worldwide are male. This is in direct contrast to only 43.5% of Facebook being female.

As of January 2025, the largest group of Facebook users in the Netherlands were aged 25 to 34 years, making up around three million users of the social network in the country. WhatsApp and Facebook remain the two most popular online social platforms in the Netherlands, with more than ten million users each. The amount of daily active users (DAU) of social media platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Snapchat in the Netherlands has increased in recent years.

Global ad spend were expected to reach over $134 billion in 2022. This means that it has increased by over 17% yearly.

Despite a tumultuous 2018, Facebook is still the top social network in the United States, with 169.76 million mobile users accessing the Facebook app in September 2019. The company’s other properties Instagram and Facebook Messenger ranked second and third with 121 and 106 million users respectively. Cambridge Analytica scandal 2018 The biggest social media company in the world had a difficult 2018. The platform has long been accused of enabling the spread of fake news during the 2016 election and beyond. One of the first and biggest negative Facebook stories of 2018 was the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which unfolded from March 2018. The Guardian, The Observer, and The New York Times simultaneously reported on political data firm Cambridge Analytica harvesting data of millions of Facebook users worldwide without their knowledge before the 2016 election, which led to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg having to testify before Congress in April 2018. Facebook usage behavior changes Due to the revelations about Facebook and the company’s treatment of private user data, many U.S. users are planning to use the social network much less and to be much more careful about what they post . During an April 2018 survey, only 20 percent of respondents stated that their Facebook usage has not changed, and they were planning on continuing to use the social platform as much as they always had in the past.

These are the key social media statistics that you need to know.

Which countries spent the most and least time on social media?

As of January 2025, 24.2 percent of Facebook users in the United States were aged between 25 and 34 years, making up Facebook’s largest audience in the country. Overall, 19 percent of users belonged to the 18 to 24-year age group. Does everyone in the U.S. use Facebook? In 2023, there were approximately 247 million Facebook users in the U.S., a figure which is projected to steadily increase, and reach 262.8 million by 2028. Social media users in the United States have a very high awareness of the social media giant. Expectedly, 94 percent of users had heard of the brand in 2023. Although the vast majority of U.S. social networkers knew of Facebook, the likeability of the platform was not so impressive at 68 percent. Nonetheless, usage, loyalty, and buzz around the brand remained relatively high. Facebook, Meta, and the metaverse A strategic rebranding from Facebook to Meta Platforms in late 2021 boded well for the company in Mark Zuckerberg’s attempt to be strongly linked to the metaverse, and to be considered more than just a social media company. According to a survey conducted in the U.S. in early 2022, Meta Platforms is the brand that Americans most associated with the metaverse.  

With roughly three billion monthly active users as of the second quarter of 2023, Facebook is the most used online social network worldwide. The platform surpassed two billion active users in the second quarter of 2017, taking just over 13 years to reach this milestone. In comparison, Meta-owned Instagram took 11.2 years, and Google’s YouTube took just over 14 years to achieve this landmark. As of January 2022, Facebook’s leading audience base was in India, with almost 330 million users whilst the United States ranked second with an approximate total of 179 million users. The platform also finds remarkable popularity in Indonesia and Brazil. Social Media usage in the United States In January 2021, Facebook was the platform on which users in the United States spent the most time per day. The average time spent on Facebook was 33 minutes, followed by TikTok with 32 minutes and Twitter with 31 daily minutes. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, all major social media platforms saw an increase in daily usage, which then either plateaued or decreased in 2021. At the end of 2021, over a quarter of all Facebook users in the United States belonged to the 25 to 34 year age group and 18.2 percent of users were in the 35 to 44 year age group. In general, Facebook users were more likely to be female. Meta Platforms Meta is Facebook’s recently renamed parent company and had a grand total of 3.59 billion core product users by the final quarter of 2021. Other Meta products include Instagram, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Oculus – Meta’s virtual reality subsidiary which produces VR headsets. In 2021, Meta's revenue amounted to 117 billion US dollars, up from around 86 billion U.S. dollars in the previous financial year.

In January 2025, there were 5.65 million users of Meta's Facebook in Switzerland, accounting for 63 percent of the population. Overall, people aged 25 to 34 constituted the largest share of the social media platform's user base in the country, making up 25.6 percent of its audience. The app was the least popular with those aged 65 years and older.

As of March 2024, Youtube.com accounted for nearly 43 of social media referral traffic to Facebook.com. Facebook's second, third and fourth-largest social media traffic driver were messenger.com, web.whatsapp.com, and instagram.com, each generating over 12 percent of social media traffic to the social network. Overall, social media accounted for 1.95 percent of traffic referrals to Facebook.com.

As of February 2025, Sweden had around 5.8 million Facebook users, whilst Denmark was home to roughly 3.45 million Facebook users. Additionally, 3.25 million people in Norway were using Meta's most popular social network. The Faroe Islands and Greenland both had under 40,000 active Facebook users as of early 2025. Social media platforms of choice in the Nordics With a plethora of social networks to choose from, users in Denmark still lean towards using Meta's Facebook. Overall, the social network had an 86 percent reach rate in the country. YouTube and Instagram are also popular, with 60 percent of internet users accessing the services in Denmark as of March 2023. Facebook's audience Although Facebook is considered as a social media platform for older audiences, Swedish users are mainly Millennials and Generation Z. In fact, Facebook finds its largest audience with users aged 25 to 34 years, with 22.4 percent of its audience falling into this age group. The service is also popular with users aged 18 to 24 years. In terms of gender, women accounted for 53.5 percent of Swedish users.

In January 2025, the United Kingdom had more than **** million Facebook users. Four years before, in September 2020, the number of Facebook users in the UK stood at *****, showing a **** percent growth in audience size in four years. Facebook remains the leading social network Despite a recent history of controversies and user privacy breaches - not least of which being the Cambridge Analytica scandal of 2018 - Facebook has managed to remain the top social network in the UK. As of July 2024, the platform had a **** percent market share, almost six times over that of X, formerly known as Twitter. Besides being the most popular social network across all age groups, Facebook and its subsidiary WhatsApp report the highest use among those aged between 26 and 35 years old. Role in political advertising Facebook has also proved to be a lucrative advertising platform, having generated **** percent of online ad revenue in the UK in 2018. This was forecast to increase to ** percent in 2021, placing the social network second to Google within the online advertising sector. Unsurprisingly, political groups aiming to capitalize on this reach have taken to large-scale advertising on Facebook. In 2019, **** million euros was spent on targeted political advertising in the UK alone, the second-highest reported figure in Europe.  

Facebook is one of the most popular social networks in the United States and as of January 2025, **** percent of U.S. Facebook users were women. Facebook usage in the United StatesThanks to its wide reach and vast range of products including Facebook Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp, many internet users would find it hard to imagine an online experience without the company that arguably made social media mainstream. In 2021, ** percent of the U.S. population were aware of Facebook, an all-time high and still improving on years of consistently high ranking in this area. In May 2024, Facebook had over *** million unique visitors from the United States, making it the seventh most popular multi-platform web property in the United States. Facebook usage concernsDespite near universal Facebook awareness and wide-ranking adoption, many consumers are wary of the social network’s influence on their digital experience and life. In 2018, the company was plagued by scandals, ranging from being a tool in the alleged foreign influence of the U.S. elections in 2016, to being utilized in spreading misinformation by bad actors due to lax content policies, to the mishandling of user data. During a March 2018 survey, ** percent of internet users in the United States stated that large digital platforms such as Facebook (and also Google and Twitter) should be regulated.

As of January 2025, ** percent of social media users in the United States aged 40 to 49 years were users of Facebook, as were ** percent of ** to ** year olds in the country. Overall, ** percent of those aged 18 to 29 years were using Instagram in the U.S. The social media market in the United States The number of social media users in the United States has shown continuous growth in the past years, and it is forecast to continue increasing to reach *** million users in 2029. As of 2023, the social network user penetration in the United States amounted to an impressive ***** percent, meaning that more than nine in ten people in the country engaged with online platforms. Furthermore, Facebook was by far the most popular social media platform in the United States, accounting for ** percent of all social media visits in 2023, followed by Pinterest with **** percent of visits. The global social media landscape As of April 2024, **** billion people were social media users, accounting for **** percent of the world’s population. Northern Europe was the region with the highest social media penetration rate with a reach of **** percent, followed by Western Europe with **** percent and Eastern Asia **** percent. In contrast, less than one in ten people in Middle Africa used social networks. Facebook’s popularity is not limited to the United States: this network leads the market on a global scale, and it accumulated more than three billion monthly active users (MAU) as of 2024, which is far more any other social media platform. YouTube, Instagram, and WhatsApp followed, all with *** billion or more MAU.

Facebook is the leading social network worldwide, and its accessibility through multiple mobile apps as well as its mobile website. In January 2021, over 98 percent of active user accounts worldwide accessed the social network via any kind of mobile phone.

Facebook in mobile-first markets India is thecountry with the largest Facebook audience by far, with 340 million users on the platform, followed the United States, Indonesia, and Brazil all of which have more than 100 million Facebook users each. With the exception of the United States, all of these are digital markets with mobile-first audiences. In many emerging markets, mobile is often the first online experience, providing online users with their first internet experience through inexpensive smartphones and mobile data contracts. In India and Indonesia, mobile by far surpasses desktop in terms of audiences and time spent.

Mobile Facebook access Due to the social network’s wide reach on mobile, it is unsurprising that Facebook consistently ranks as one of the most-downloaded app publishers worldwide. Some of the apps published by Facebook include the eponymous social networking app (and its low-bandwidth version, Facebook Lite), Facebook Messenger (also available as Messenger Lite), Facebook Pages Manager and Facebook Local. In the Google Play Store, Facebook Messenger, Messenger Lite and Facebook frequently rank among the top downloaded apps every month.