There were 21 904 700 Facebook users in Australia in April 2023, which accounted for 80.2% of its entire population. The majority of them were women - 53.2%. People aged 25 to 34 were the largest user group (5 300 000). The highest difference between men and women occurs within people aged 65 and above, where women lead by 897 600.

The number of Facebook users in Australia was forecast to continuously decrease between 2024 and 2028 by in total 1,470,000 users (-9.74 percent). After the seventh consecutive decreasing year, the Facebook user base is estimated to reach 13,620,000 users and therefore a new minimum in 2028. User figures, shown here regarding the platform facebook, have been estimated by taking into account company filings or press material, secondary research, app downloads and traffic data. They refer to the average monthly active users over the period and count multiple accounts by persons only once.The shown data are an excerpt of Statista's Key Market Indicators (KMI). The KMI are a collection of primary and secondary indicators on the macro-economic, demographic and technological environment in up to 150 countries and regions worldwide. All indicators are sourced from international and national statistical offices, trade associations and the trade press and they are processed to generate comparable data sets (see supplementary notes under details for more information).

Females and males aged 25 to 34 constituted the largest share of active Facebook users in Australia as of October 2024. Both females and males in that age bracket made up approximately 12.8 percent. Facebook: the world’s favorite online hangout Facebook continues to rank as the world’s most popular social network. With just over three billion users in a worldwide population of around eight billion people, Facebook has left its mark on the modern world - and its wallet. In 2021, Facebook’s owner Meta, formerly Facebook Inc, generated over 134 billion dollars in revenue, a figure which has continued to soar since Facebook’s inception in 2004. Advertising and Meta’s family of apps, which among others includes Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, have made up the majority of the company’s revenue in recent years. The internet as a source of hope  ‘Screen time’, or time spent using a device such as a phone, computer, television, or video game console, often gets a bad name. The average Australian spends close to three hours daily surfing the internet on a mobile phone, which puts Australians above the world average for minutes spent on the internet on a mobile daily. With young people making up a significant portion of the internet-using population, it is reassuring to know that close to 25 percent of young Australians also use the internet to seek help or information on issues important to them, like the environment, equity and discrimination, and mental health.

The number of Facebook users in Australia had been increasing steadily throughout the years, with a forecast of approximately 11.5 million Australians having an account on the social media platform by the year 2022. This figure would represent more than 40 percent of the Australian population, making it the most used social media platform in the nation.

Facebook - the most used social media platform

Australia had one the highest active social media penetration rates globally, with most of the population having account on a social media platform. It is partially due to the country’s high internet penetration rate and heavy influence from the United States with regard to internet and social media trends. Furthermore, social networks were the most used platform of social media with instant messenger platforms such as WhatsApp and Facebook messenger coming in second place.

Demographics of Facebook users

Younger generations in Australia were much more active Facebook users with those between 18 to 29 years using the platform four times more per week than those over the age of 65. This was not to say that the elderly did not use Facebook but the data showed that those that do use social media platforms were most likely to have a Facebook account in comparison to other generations.

The number of Facebook users in Australia was forecast to continuously decrease between 2024 and 2028 by in total 1.5 million users (-9.94 percent). After the eighth consecutive decreasing year, the Facebook user base is estimated to reach 13.62 million users and therefore a new minimum in 2028. User figures, shown here regarding the platform facebook, have been estimated by taking into account company filings or press material, secondary research, app downloads and traffic data. They refer to the average monthly active users over the period and count multiple accounts by persons only once.The shown data are an excerpt of Statista's Key Market Indicators (KMI). The KMI are a collection of primary and secondary indicators on the macro-economic, demographic and technological environment in up to 150 countries and regions worldwide. All indicators are sourced from international and national statistical offices, trade associations and the trade press and they are processed to generate comparable data sets (see supplementary notes under details for more information).Find more key insights for the number of Facebook users in countries like Fiji and New Zealand.

The use of Facebook in Australia is dominated by 25 to 34-year-old millennials, with around 3.7 million Australians in this age bracket using the social networking site in 2019. Despite this, younger millennials are tending to use Facebook less than older generations, with a usage rate of around 70 percent in Australia.

How are Aussies using social media?

In 2018, most Australians used social networking sites to catch up with family and friends. Millennials also used these apps to share photographs or videos. This activity has amplified the popularity of Instagram, an app that makes it easy to capture, edit and share photos and videos. Facebook and YouTube were used by a large proportion of consumers for finding, reading, watching, sharing or discussing news, largely due to convenience and the ease of access to current events.

#hashtag-mania

Although Facebook is still the most widely used social networking service in the country, YouTube and Instagram are also popular platforms, especially among younger Australians. Leading millennials (those aged between 29 and 34 years) had the largest usage share for YouTube, while trailing millennials (those aged between 14 to 28) were particularly active users of Instagram in 2018. These platforms all look to expand their audiences in the future, engaging through targeted video advertising, ephemeral content storytelling and through social media influencers.

The number of LinkedIn users in Australia was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2028 by in total 0.5 million users (+3.74 percent). After the ninth consecutive increasing year, the LinkedIn user base is estimated to reach 13.89 million users and therefore a new peak in 2028. Notably, the number of LinkedIn users of was continuously increasing over the past years.User figures, shown here with regards to the platform LinkedIn, have been estimated by taking into account company filings or press material, secondary research, app downloads and traffic data. They refer to the average monthly active users over the period and count multiple accounts by persons only once.The shown data are an excerpt of Statista's Key Market Indicators (KMI). The KMI are a collection of primary and secondary indicators on the macro-economic, demographic and technological environment in up to 150 countries and regions worldwide. All indicators are sourced from international and national statistical offices, trade associations and the trade press and they are processed to generate comparable data sets (see supplementary notes under details for more information).Find more key insights for the number of LinkedIn users in countries like Fiji and New Zealand.

The number of Instagram users in Australia was forecast to continuously decrease between 2024 and 2028 by in total 1.5 million users (-13.94 percent). According to this forecast, in 2028, the Instagram user base will have decreased for the sixth consecutive year to 9.27 million users. User figures, shown here with regards to the platform instagram, have been estimated by taking into account company filings or press material, secondary research, app downloads and traffic data. They refer to the average monthly active users over the period and count multiple accounts by persons only once.The shown data are an excerpt of Statista's Key Market Indicators (KMI). The KMI are a collection of primary and secondary indicators on the macro-economic, demographic and technological environment in up to 150 countries and regions worldwide. All indicators are sourced from international and national statistical offices, trade associations and the trade press and they are processed to generate comparable data sets (see supplementary notes under details for more information).Find more key insights for the number of Instagram users in countries like New Zealand and Fiji.

Young people in Australia are more likely to have more friends on Facebook, with the average user between the ages of 18 to 29 years having almost 400 friends on the platform. This is in contrast with senior citizens (65 years and above) who seem to be more selective, having an average of just under 70 friends on Facebook.

The most used social media platform  

Australia has very high social media penetration rate, with a majority of the population having an account on a social media platform. It is partially due to the country’s high internet penetration rate and cultural influences from the western world on social media trends. Furthermore, the number of Facebook users in Australia has been increasing steadily, with a forecast of approximately 11.5 million Australians having an account on the social media platform by the year 2022. This figure would represent more than 40 percent of the nation’s population, making it the most used social media platform in Australia. 

Demographics of Facebook users  

The use of Facebook in Australia is dominated by 25- to 34-year-old millennials, with around 4.4 million Australians in this age bracket using the social networking site in 2018. Younger generations in Australia are also more active Facebook users with those between 18 to 29 years using the platform four times more per week than those over the age of 65 years. Elderly users of social media however were most likely to have a Facebook account in comparison to other generations.   

The number of snapchat users in Australia was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2028 by in total 0.3 million users (+4.02 percent). After the ninth consecutive increasing year, the snapchat user base is estimated to reach 7.74 million users and therefore a new peak in 2028. Notably, the number of snapchat users of was continuously increasing over the past years.The user numbers, depicted here regarding the platform Snapchat, have been estimated by taking into account company filings or press material, secondary research, app downloads and traffic data. They refer to the average monthly active users over the period and count multiple accounts by persons only once.The shown data are an excerpt of Statista's Key Market Indicators (KMI). The KMI are a collection of primary and secondary indicators on the macro-economic, demographic and technological environment in up to 150 countries and regions worldwide. All indicators are sourced from international and national statistical offices, trade associations and the trade press and they are processed to generate comparable data sets (see supplementary notes under details for more information).

66 percent of Australian respondents answer our survey on "Most used websites and online services by type" with "Social media websites and apps". The survey was conducted in 2024, among 2,029 consumers.

A survey conducted among Australian social shoppers revealed that Facebook was the most used social commerce platform in 2023, at around 58 percent of respondents. Instagram took second place at approximately 40 percent. Whereas Facebook was more popular among Gen X, Instagram, Youtube, and TikTok were trendy among the younger generations.

Research from AppMagic suggested that Facebook continued to dominate the Australian social media landscape by owning two most downloaded social media apps as of January 2024. The number of Facebook downloads amounted to over 28 million, followed by Instagram, Pinterest, and Google. Facebook: The industry giant With over three billion monthly active users worldwide as of January 2024, Facebook leads the industry as the most popular social network platform. Besides its core product under the same name, Facebook also owns several major social network services, namely WhatsApp, Instagram, and its standalone instant messaging service, Messenger, each with more than one billion active users. The number of Australia-based Facebook users is estimated to decrease to around 13 million over the next few years, but still accounting for approximately two-thirds of Australia’s total population. More than just social networking While its business focus lies on private messaging, Facebook seems to have more to offer. Facebook, including Messenger, and Instagram have remained the most widely used platforms for social commerce among Australian online shoppers. Facebook has also been by far the most popular social media channel among small and medium-sized businesses in Australia. In times of the COVID-19 pandemic, apart from television and online newspaper, many Australians have turned to Facebook as their daily source of news.

Abstract

In partnership with the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, Facebook launched a Climate Change Opinion Survey that explores public climate change knowledge, attitudes, policy preferences, and behaviors across 31 countries and territories. Aggregated data is available publicly on Humanitarian Data Exchange (HDX). De-identified microdata is also available to nonprofits and universities under a data license agreement through Facebook’s Data for Good (DFG) program. For more information please email dataforgood@fb.com.

Analysis unit

Public Aggregate Data on HDX: country or regional levels De-identified Microdata through Facebook Data for Good program: Individual level

Universe

The survey was fielded to active Facebook users ages 18+

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

Sampled Facebook users saw an invitation to answer a short survey at the top of their Facebook Newsfeed and had the option to click the invitation to complete the survey on the Facebook platform. The sample was drawn from the population of Facebook monthly active users, defined as registered and logged-in Facebook users who had visited Facebook through the website or a mobile device in the last 30 days.

Within each country or territory surveyed, Facebook drew a sample in proportion to publicly available age and gender benchmarks. The sample population in the United States was drawn in proportion to the U.S. Census Bureau Current Population Survey 2018 March Supplement. All other countries and territories were sampled in proportion to data from the United Nations Population Division 2019 World Population Projections. Data were weighted separately for each country and territory using a multi-stage, pre- and post-survey weighting process based on census and nationally representative survey benchmarks, Facebook demographics, and Facebook engagement metrics, balanced to the total number of survey completions.

Mode of data collection

Internet [int]

Research instrument

The survey includes questions about people’s climate change knowledge, attitudes, policy preferences, and behaviors. The codebook with survey questions is available here.

Response rate

Response rates to online surveys vary widely depending on a number of factors including survey length, region, strength of the relationship with invitees, incentive mechanisms, invite copy, interest of respondents in the topic and survey design. Facebook provides survey weights to help make the sample more representative of each country or territory’s population.

Sampling error estimates

Any survey data is prone to several forms of error and biases that need to be considered to understand how closely the results reflect the intended population. In particular, the following components of the total survey error are noteworthy:

Sampling error is a natural characteristic of every survey based on samples and reflects the uncertainty in any survey result that is attributable to the fact that not the whole population is surveyed.

Other factors beyond sampling error that contribute to such potential differences are frame or coverage error and nonresponse error.

This statistic displays the usage of Facebook in Australia in 2018, by generation. During the survey period, around 84 percent of respondents aged 71 years and older reported to actively use Facebook.

The number of social media users in Australia was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2029 by in total 2.1 million users (+8.55 percent). After the ninth consecutive increasing year, the social media user base is estimated to reach 26.68 million users and therefore a new peak in 2029. Notably, the number of social media users of was continuously increasing over the past years.The shown figures regarding social media users have been derived from survey data that has been processed to estimate missing demographics.The shown data are an excerpt of Statista's Key Market Indicators (KMI). The KMI are a collection of primary and secondary indicators on the macro-economic, demographic and technological environment in up to 150 countries and regions worldwide. All indicators are sourced from international and national statistical offices, trade associations and the trade press and they are processed to generate comparable data sets (see supplementary notes under details for more information).Find more key insights for the number of social media users in countries like Fiji and New Zealand.

As of July 2021, there were 17 million monthly active users of Facebook in Australia. This figure represents the highest number of active users of a single social media website in the country. YouTube had 16.5 million active monthly users in that same time period.

Facebook Australia is a Proprietary Company that generates the majority of its income from the Internet Publishing and Broadcasting industry.

As of April 2024, it was found that men between the ages of 25 and 34 years made up Facebook largest audience, accounting for 18.4 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.

This data set was used for my honours thesis and as part of my journal article submission. This data set records observatiions of advertising posted by McDonalds Australia to Facebook during the 1st July to the 31st July 2019. The advertisments were assigned coded in relation to two catagories; being user enagement and creative advertising strategy.