The number of Facebook users in the United States was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2028 by in total 12.6 million users (+5.04 percent). After the ninth consecutive increasing year, the Facebook user base is estimated to reach 262.8 million users and therefore a new peak in 2028. Notably, the number of Facebook users of was continuously increasing over the past years.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).

1. Environmental volunteering can benefit participants and nature through improving physical and mental wellbeing while encouraging environmental stewardship. To enhance achievement of these outcomes, conservation organisations need to reach different groups of people to increase participation in environmental volunteering. This paper explores what engages communities searching online for environmental volunteering.
   

2. We conducted a literature review of 1032 papers to determine key factors fostering participation by existing volunteers in environmental projects. We found the most important factor was to tailor projects to the motivations of participants. Also important were: promoting projects to people with relevant interests; meeting the perceived benefits of volunteers and removing barriers to participation.
   

3. We then assessed the composition and factors fostering participation of the NatureVolunteers’s online community (n = 2216) of potential environmental volunteers and compared findings with those from the literature review. We asked whether projects advertised by conservation organisations meet motivations and interests of this online community.
   

4. Using Facebook insights and Google Analytics we found that the online community were on average younger than extant communities observed in studies of environmental volunteering. Their motivations were also different as they were more interested in physical activity and using skills and less in social factors. They also exhibited preference for projects which are outdoor based, and which offer close contact with wildlife. Finally, we found that the online community showed a stronger preference for habitat improvement projects over those involving species-survey based citizen science.
   

5. Our results demonstrate mis-matches between what our online community are looking for and what is advertised by conservation organisations. The online community are looking for projects which are more solitary, more physically active and more accessible by organised transport. We discuss how our results may be used by conservation organisations to better engage with more people searching for environmental volunteering opportunities online.
   

6. We conclude that there is a pool of young people attracted to environmental volunteering projects whose interests are different to those of current volunteers. If conservation organisations can develop projects that meet these interests, they can engage larger and more diverse communities in nature volunteering.
   

Methods The data set consists of separate sheets for each set of results presented in the paper. Each sheet contains the full data, summary descriptive statistics analysis and graphs presented in the paper. The method for collection and processing of the dataset in each sheet is as follows:

The data set for results presented in Figure 1 in the paper - Sheet: "Literature"

We conducted a review of literature on improving participation within nature conservation projects. This enabled us to determine what the most important factors were for participating in environmental projects, the composition of the populations sampled and the methods by which data were collected. The search terms used were (Environment* OR nature OR conservation) AND (Volunteer* OR “citizen science”) AND (Recruit* OR participat* OR retain* OR interest*). We reviewed all articles identified in the Web of Science database and the first 50 articles sorted for relevance in Google Scholar on the 22nd October 2019. Articles were first reviewed by title, secondly by abstract and thirdly by full text. They were retained or excluded according to criteria agreed by the authors of this paper. These criteria were as follows - that the paper topic was volunteering in the environment, including citizen science, community-based projects and conservation abroad, and included the study of factors which could improve participation in projects. Papers were excluded for topics irrelevant to this study, the most frequent being the outcomes of volunteering for participants (such as behavioural change and knowledge gain), improving citizen science data and the usefulness of citizen science data. The remaining final set of selected papers was then read to extract information on the factors influencing participation, the population sampled and the data collection methods. In total 1032 papers were reviewed of which 31 comprised the final selected set read in full. Four factors were identified in these papers which improve volunteer recruitment and retention. These were: tailoring projects to the motivations of participants, promoting projects to people with relevant hobbies and interests, meeting the perceived benefits of volunteers and removing barriers to participation.

The data set for results presented in Figure 2 and Figure 3 in the paper - Sheet "Demographics"

To determine if the motivations and interests expressed by volunteers in literature were representative of wider society, NatureVolunteers was exhibited at three UK public engagement events during May and June 2019; Hullabaloo Festival (Isle of Wight), The Great Wildlife Exploration (Bournemouth) and Festival of Nature (Bristol). This allowed us to engage with people who may not have ordinarily considered volunteering and encourage people to use the website. A combination of surveys and semi-structured interviews were used to collect information from the public regarding demographics and volunteering. In line with our ethics approval, no personal data were collected that could identify individuals and all participants gave informed consent for their anonymous information to be used for research purposes. The semi-structured interviews consisted of conducting the survey in a conversation with the respondent, rather than the respondent filling in the questionnaire privately and responses were recorded immediately by the interviewer. Hullabaloo Festival was a free discovery and exploration event where NatureVolunteers had a small display and surveys available. The Great Wildlife Exploration was a Bioblitz designed to highlight the importance of urban greenspaces where we had a stall with wildlife crafts promoting NatureVolunteers. The Festival of Nature was the UK’s largest nature-based festival in 2019 where we again had wildlife crafts available promoting NatureVolunteers. The surveys conducted at these events sampled a population of people who already expressed an interest in nature and the environment by attending the events and visiting the NatureVolunteers stand. In total 100 completed surveys were received from the events NatureVolunteers exhibited at; 21 from Hullabaloo Festival, 25 from the Great Wildlife Exploration and 54 from the Festival of Nature. At Hullabaloo Festival information on gender was not recorded for all responses and was consequently entered as “unrecorded”.

OVERALL DESCRIPTION OF METHOD DATA COLLECTION FOR ALL OTHER RESULTS (Figures 4-7 and Tables 1-2)

The remaining data were all collected from the NatureVolunteers website. The NatureVolunteers website https://www.naturevolunteers.uk/ was set up in 2018 with funding support from the Higher Education Innovation Fund to expand the range of people accessing nature volunteering opportunities in the UK. It is designed to particularly appeal to people who are new to nature volunteering including young adults wishing to expand their horizons, families looking for ways connect with nature to enhance well-being and older people wishing to share their time and life experiences to help nature. In addition, it was designed to be helpful to professionals working in the countryside & wildlife conservation sectors who wish to enhance their skills through volunteering. As part of the website’s development we created and used an online project database, www.naturevolunteers.uk (hereafter referred to as NatureVolunteers), to assess the needs and interests of our online community. Our research work was granted ethical approval by the Bournemouth University Ethics Committee. The website collects entirely anonymous data on our online community of website users that enables us to evaluate what sort of projects and project attributes most appeal to our online community. Visitors using the website to find projects are informed as part of the guidance on using the search function that this fully anonymous information is collected by the website to enhance and share research understanding of how conservation organisations can tailor their future projects to better match the interests of potential volunteers. Our online community was built up over the 2018-2019 through open advertising of the website nationally through the social media channels of our partner conservation organisations, through a range of public engagement in science events and nature-based festivals across southern England and through our extended network of friends and families, their own social media networks and the NatureVolunteers website’s own social network on Facebook and Twitter. There were 2216 searches for projects on NatureVolunteers from January 1st to October 25th, 2019.

The data set for results presented in Figure 2 and Figure 3 in the paper - Sheet "Demographics"

On the website, users searching for projects were firstly asked to specify their expectations of projects. These expectations encompass the benefits of volunteering by asking whether the project includes social interaction, whether particular skills are required or can be developed, and whether physical activity is involved. The barriers to participation are incorporated by asking whether the project is suitable for families, and whether organised transport is provided. Users were asked to rate the importance of the five project expectations on a Likert scale of 1 to 5 (Not at all = 1, Not really = 2, Neutral = 3, It

The number of Reddit users in the United States was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2028 by in total 10.3 million users (+5.21 percent). After the ninth consecutive increasing year, the Reddit user base is estimated to reach 208.12 million users and therefore a new peak in 2028. Notably, the number of Reddit users of was continuously increasing over the past years.User figures, shown here with regards to the platform reddit, 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. Reddit users encompass both users that are logged in and those that are not.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 Reddit users in countries like Mexico and Canada.

The number of Twitter users in the United States was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2028 by in total 4.3 million users (+5.32 percent). After the ninth consecutive increasing year, the Twitter user base is estimated to reach 85.08 million users and therefore a new peak in 2028. Notably, the number of Twitter users of was continuously increasing over the past years.User figures, shown here regarding the platform twitter, 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.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 Twitter users in countries like Canada and Mexico.

How many paid subscribers does Spotify have? As of the fourth quarter of 2024, Spotify had 263 million premium subscribers worldwide, up from 236 million in the corresponding quarter of 2023. Spotify’s subscriber base has increased dramatically in the last few years and has more than doubled since early 2019. Spotify and competitors Spotify is a music streaming service originally founded in 2006 in Sweden. The platform can be used from various devices and allows users to browse through a catalogue of music licensed through multiple record labels, as well as creating and sharing playlists with other users. Additionally, listeners are able to enjoy music for free with advertisements or are also given the option to purchase a subscription to allow for unlimited ad-free music streaming. Spotify’s largest competitors are Pandora, a company that offers a similar service and remains popular in the United States, and Apple Music, which was launched in 2015. While Pandora was once among the highest-grossing music apps in the Apple App Store, recent rankings show that global services like QQ Music, NetEase Cloud Music, and YouTube Music now generate higher monthly revenues.Users are also able to register Spotify accounts using Facebook directly through the website using an app. This enables them to connect with other Facebook friends and explore their music tastes and playlists. Spotify is a popular source for keeping up-to-date with music, and the ability to enjoy Spotify anywhere at any time allows consumers to shape their music consumption around their lifestyles and preferences.

The number of Facebook users in Europe was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2028 by in total 15.5 million users (+3.91 percent). According to this forecast, in 2028, the Facebook user base will have increased for the sixth consecutive year to 412.26 million users. 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 South America and North America.

As of April 2024, almost 32 percent of global Instagram audiences were aged between 18 and 24 years, and 30.6 percent of users were aged between 25 and 34 years. Overall, 16 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 362.9 million and 169.7 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 second quarter of 2021, Snapchat had 293 million daily active users.

As of early 2025, LinkedIn had an audience reach of 250 million users in the United States. The country was by far the leading market of the professional job networking service, with runner-up India having an audience of 150 million. LinkedIn: the company Launched in 2003, LinkedIn is a professional networking service where jobseekers can post their CVs, and employers or recruiters can post job ads and search for prospective candidates. In December 2016, Microsoft acquired LinkedIn, making it a wholly owned subsidiary. In 2020, the platform generated over eight billion U.S. dollars in revenue. Despite its great success, the company has not always seen positive numbers only, and in 2018, LinkedIn reported an operating loss of 987 million U.S. dollars. LinkedIn marketing Greater exposure, lead generation and increased thought leadership are all key benefits of social media marketing, and LinkedIn is a popular marketing tool in the B2B segment. Whereas the company predominantly generates revenue by selling access to member information to professional parties, LinkedIn is the second-most popular social media platform used by B2B marketers, ranking only behind Facebook.

How much time do people spend on social media? As of 2024, the average daily social media usage of internet users worldwide amounted to 143 minutes per day, down from 151 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 three hours and 49 minutes on social media each day. In comparison, the daily time spent with social media in the U.S. was just two 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.

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.

The number of LinkedIn users in Africa was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2028 by in total 37 million users (+68.13 percent). After the ninth consecutive increasing year, the LinkedIn user base is estimated to reach 91.29 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 South America and Caribbean.