Picture a high school hallway during lunch break. Heads down, thumbs scrolling, earbuds in. This isn’t boredom, it’s engagement. For Generation Z, social media isn’t just a way to stay connected; it’s how they navigate identity, find entertainment, and even make purchasing decisions. Born between 1997 and 2012, Gen Z...

As of September 2024 in the United Kingdom, 98 percent of Generation Z, those born between 1995 and 2012, were using social media. The same was true for 97 percent of millennials in the country. Overall, 92 percent of Gen X were on social networks, as were 86 percent of Baby boomers.

As of November 2022, a survey of global Generation Z social media users had ** percent of respondents state that social media had a positive impact on their self-expression, whilst ** percent reported it had a positive impact on their social connectivity. Overall, one in **** Gen Z users said social media had a negative effect on their self-confidence and self-esteem.

******** was the most popular social media platform for Gen Z, or 15-to-19-year-olds, in the Netherlands in 2020, with nearly all respondents using the service. This according to domestic survey information. The ********* service already ranked as the Netherlands' overall most popular social medium in terms of users. YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat were also very popular, all reaching a penetration rate of over ** percent. Karaoke app TikTok, on the other hand, was much less popular, as only ** percent of them used the video application. Why is TikTok low in this ranking? Chinese video and sing-along application TikTok, formerly Musical.ly, made a global name as being one of the most popular smartphone apps for Generation Z. Here, it seemingly ranks low as the source used ages ** and up. This age group might potentially fall outside TikTok’s user base. While there is no data for the Netherlands that investigates the age groups below **, download numbers suggest the app grew in popularity in the Netherlands after Bytedance (TikTok’s owner) merged Musical.ly and TikTok in August 2018. A clash of generations Perhaps unsurprisingly, Gen Z uses Instagram and Snapchat much more often than their Millennial counterparts (defined by the source as 20-to 39-year olds). Interestingly, Pinterest was also more popular among the younger generation. The picture gallery app does not rank among the most popular apps in the Netherlands, reaching less than **** million people in 2019. Facebook, on the other hand, was more preferred by Millennials than it was by Generation Z.

Generation Alpha, born from 2010 onward, is growing up entirely in the digital era. From virtual classrooms to influencer-led shopping trends, their online experiences are shaping how they learn, play, and connect. Whether it’s gaming on Roblox or discovering brands on YouTube, their digital behavior is influencing industries from education...

Gen Z women are more likely than Gen Z men to make purchases via social media in the United States and the United Kingdom. At least ** percent of female respondents in that generation had experienced buying a product on social networks as of January 2022, while the male usage rate stood at ** percent. Discovering new brands via social media or visiting brands' social media stores was also more popular among Gen Z women than their male counterparts.

Younger generations—specifically, millennials and Gen Z—increasingly turn to social media for personal finance purposes, such as making and receiving payments, crowdfunding, shopping, and financial education. While the financial tools provided by social media offer benefits, such as convenience and community, they also come with risks, such as increased fraud and misinformation.

Introduction

Gen Z Statistics: Gen Z, iGeneration, or Post-millennials are individuals born between the mid-90s and early 2010s. However, many sources have yet to confirm their dates. This generation experienced growing up entirely in the digital era. Therefore, their behavior, thinking, and habits are different from those of other generations.

Surprisingly, it is easier to find a Gen Z with an internet connection, social media, or smartphone. These recent Gen Z Statistics confirm that these people prefer peace of mind and work-life balance and are more educated compared to other generations. These people are diverse in thinking. Therefore, it is difficult to understand their generations, as they are flexible towards everything.Â

A survey conducted in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2020 among teenagers and young adults asked participants whether they had a public or private social media profile. Slightly over half reported having a public profile, while only **** percent had made theirs private. ** percent of respondents however claimed to have a mix of both public and private social media profiles. This relatively high level of trust when it came to social media can perhaps be explained by a 2019 survey, where ** percent of respondents in the UK claimed they had never been a victim of social media or email account hacking before.

Facebook and WhatsApp lead in the UK

Among the leading social media platforms, Facebook emerged as the most frequently used among young adults aged 18 to 24 years old in the UK. Nearly ** percent of all respondents cited the social media giant as the app they reached for most often. The second most used app within this age group in the UK was WhatsApp. In contrast, only *** percent used Twitter the most.

Social media – the new marketing trend

As social media becomes more and more integrated into our daily lives, brands have been taking note. Social media marketing is a fast growing industry and spend on social media advertising by corporations has been on the rise each year. What began as a nationwide spend of merely **** billion British pounds in 2011 had risen to **** billion British pounds by 2018. According to an annual survey, roughly ** percent of teenagers aged 12 to 15 already have at least one social media account.

As of 2020, ******** was the most popular social media platform among Gen Z and Millennials in the United States to connect to others. ****** and ******* ranked second and third, with respective shares of ** percent and ** percent of respondents using these social networks to connect to others.

According to a survey conducted in August 2024 in the United States, ** percent of Generation Z adults were satisfied with their current level of social media engagement, while ********* reported that they wanted to be less engaged with social media. Overall, ** percent of respondents stated that they wanted to be more engaged.

Instagram was the most influential social media platform in the buying decisions of European Gen Z shoppers, influencing ** percent of them, according to a 2024 survey.

The number of social media users in the United States was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2029 by in total 26 million users (+8.55 percent). After the ninth consecutive increasing year, the social media user base is estimated to reach 330.07 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).

As of July 2023, short videos were the most favourite social media activity among Generation Z adults in the United States, as more than 60 percent of respondents reported to have watched them. Conversely, approximately 43 percent of Gen Z adults watched livestream videos. Internet users in the United States liked to watch short videos on different platforms, but TikTok was the most popular.

In 2024, some 70 percent of Generation Z survey respondents in the United States and the United Kingdom stated that their most valuable social platform for food recommendations was TikTok. Instagram was the second most valuable platform for Generation Z.

In 2024, more than ** percent of global consumers belonging to Generation Z used social media for customer service proposes, while ** percent of Millennials did the same. Moreover, *** out of five Boomers participated in live shopping events on social media platforms.

According to a survey of social media users aged between 16 and 24 years in the United Kingdom, 71 percent of respondents used the Instagram mobile app daily as of October 2022. Approximately seven in 10 respondents reported using social video app TikTok and YouTube on a daily basis, respectively. New social app app BeReal, which prompts users to post content once per day, was used by less than three in 10 respondents aged between 16 and 24 years.

A survey conducted in August 2022 found that Gen Z news consumers most frequently get their news from social media, with 50 percent of respondents reporting they used social networks as their news source on a daily basis. There was a general preference for online news sources rather than offline outlets among Gen Z, with only five percent saying that they read local newspapers every day.
News consumption: Gen Z vs. millennials The same 2022 study showed that whilst there were similarities between news consumption among millennials and Gen Z, there were also stark differences between the two groups. Gen Zers were significantly less likely to listen to the radio or watch television for news, and close to 60 percent said that they never read newspapers. Meanwhile, approximately 20 percent of Millennials reported listening to radio news and 15 percent watched cable or network TV on a daily basis.

Despite these differences, both Gen Z and millennial news audiences both demonstrated a clear preference for using social media to get their news. By contrast, Boomers were the least likely group to use social media for news, generally preferring network news for keeping up to date. Indeed, social networks are not without their problems, with consumers growing concerned about the news they find there. Social media and news Except for podcasts, social media is the least trusted news source in the United States. Fake news circulates there easily as consumers either unknowingly or deliberately share such content, and younger generations, who are the heaviest social media users, are at the highest risk of encountering biased, inaccurate, and untrue stories.

According to a survey conducted among Generation Z in Japan in November 2024, more than ** percent of the respondents knew about YouTube. YouTube was the most commonly known social media platform, ahead of Instagram, X, and TikTok.

Review videos led *** of Generation Z respondents to make a purchase in 2024, according to a survey. Haul videos were the second-most influential content, leading one-out-of-five Generation Z respondents to a purchase.